BISHOP  KEMPER 

AND   HIS  CONTEMPORARIES 


*     MAR  29  1900   *] 


BX  5995  .K4  W5  1900 
White,  Greenough,  1863-1901 
An  apostle  of  the  western 
church 


AN  APOSTLE 

OF  THE 

WESTERN  CHURCH 

MEMOIR  OF  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 

JACKSON  "KEMPER 

DOCTOR   OF   DIVINITY,   FIRST   MISSIONARY   BISHOP 
OF  THE  AMERICAN    CHURCH 

WITH  NOTICES  OF  SOME  OF  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES 

A  CONTRIBUTION 
TO  THE  RELIGIOUS  HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  STATES 

BY  THE  REVEREND 

GREENOUGH  WHITE  A.M.  B.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE 

SOUTH.       AUTHOR  OF  "AN  OUTLINE  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY 

OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE,"  "A  SAINT  OF  THE 

SOUTHERN   CHURCH,"   ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
THOMAS  WHITTAKER 

2  AND  3  BIBLE  HOUSE 
1900 


Copyright,  1899, 
By  GREENOUGH  WHITE 


TO 

THE  BISHOPS 

OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WEST 

THIS  PORTRAIT 

OF  ONE   OF  THEIR  APOSTOLIC  PREDECESSORS 

IS  RESPECTFULLY  PRESENTED 


PREFACE 

In  a  note  to  his  sketch  of  Jackson  Kemper,  in  his  "  Bishops 
of  the  American  Church,"  Bishop  Perry  wrote  :  "His  Ufe  is 
yet  to  be  written.  It  will  be  the  history  of  the  founding  of 
the  Church  in  the  middle  West."  No  apology  is  necessary 
for  a  biography  of  Bishop  Kemper ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  reflection 
upon  the  church  that  she  has  not  had  one  before.  There  is 
a  certain  vulgarity  about  a  family,  an  institution  or  a  nation 
that  is  ignorant  of  and  indifferent  to  its  past.  Every  church- 
man old  or  young,  but  especially  the  young,  and  especially 
in  the  dioceses  that  have  sprung  out  of  Kemper's  old  juris- 
diction, should  be  familiar  with  the  facts  in  his  career. 

It  was  while  composing  his  life  of  Bishop  Cobbs  that  the 
writer's  attention  was  attracted  to  the  western  field,  and 
now  that  his  work  is  done  he  may  perhaps  be  pardoned  some 
expression  of  retrospective  satisfaction  as  he  looks  out  over 
the  clearings  he  has  made  in  the  mental  forest,  and  draws  a 
deep  breath  of  relief  at  the  completion  of  the  labor,  incon- 
ceivable by  those  who  have  never  tried  it,  of  reducing  to  a 
cosmos  a  chaos  of  material  gathered  from  books,  pamphlets, 
reports,  newspaper  clippings,  and  a  mass  of  manuscript, 
journals,  letters,  notes  of  conversations,  etc.  The  two 
books  may  be  read  as  halves  of  a  whole ;  taken  together, 
they  describe  the  expansion  of  the  church  throughout  the 
land  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, — the  national- 
izing, one  might  almost  call  it  the  continentalizing,  of  the 
church ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  they  may  serve  to  make  the 
southern  and  western  provinces  of  our  national  communion 


vi  PREFACE 

better  acquainted  with  each  other,  and,  what  is  perhaps 
more  important,  each  with  itself,  and  the  church  in  the 
North  and  East  with  both.  As  for  outsiders,  they  can  find 
embodied  in  Kemper  and  Cobbs  the  very  genius  of  the 
American  church. 

Many  of  the  authorities  used  are  plainly  indicated  in  the 
text.  Without  attempting  an  exhaustive  enumeration,  the 
following  deserve  mention,  as  the  more  important  sources  of 
general  information : 

Reynolds:  "Pioneer  History  of  Illinois";  Moses: 
"Illinois  Historical  and  Statistical";  Ford's  History  of 
lUinois,  and  a  pamphlet  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Patterson:  "Early 
Society  in  Southern  Illinois  "  ;  Roosevelt :  "Thomas  Hart 
Benton";  Thwaites :  "Story  of  Wisconsin";  Harsha: 
"  Story  of  Iowa  "  ;  Tuttle  :  "  Illustrated  History  of  Iowa  "  ; 
Nourse:  " Iowa  and  the  Centennial  ";  Spring :  "Kansas," 
(and  others  of  the  "American  Commonwealths"  series); 
Morton:  "Centennial  Discourse  on  Nebraska,"  and  papers 
of  the  Nebraska  and  other  State  Historical  Societies ;  Flint : 
"Recollections  of  Ten  Years  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  "  ; 
memorial  histories  of  Chicago  and  Milwaukee;  and  in  the 
literature  of  humor.  Hall's  "New  Purchase,"  and  Riley's 
"Puddleford  Papers."  Ecclesiastico-historical  and  bio- 
graphical sources  are:  "The  Spirit  of  Missions,"  and 
journals  of  the  various  dioceses ;  Bishop  Chase's  "  Reminis- 
cences," and  "The  Ken  yon  Book";  Bishop  Whitehouse's 
"  Exhibits  "  ;  the  lives  of  Breck  and  Cummins ;  Morehouse : 
"Some  American  Churchmen";  papers  on  Breck  and 
Adams  by  Rev.  D.  D.  Chapin,  in  "The  Living  Church"  ; 
the  Report  of  the  Jubilee  Ceremonies  of  Nashotah  House,  a 
pamphlet  on  Nashotah  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Webb,  and  an  article 
on  Dr.  DeKoven  by  Rev.  T.  F.  Gailor,  in  "The  Sewanee 
Review"  for  May,  1893. 


PREFACE  vii 

Particular  information  may  be  classified  as  follows : 

I.  Documentary  : 

(A)  Published  or  printed  : 

Kemper's  reports  in  "The  Spirit  of  Missions"  and  ad- 
dresses to  his  diocesan  conventions,  a  memorial  pamphlet, 
with  sermon  by  Rev.  Dr.  H.  M.  Thompson,  and  numbers 
of  "The  Nashotah  Scholiast." 

(B)  Manuscript : 

A  few  of  the  bishop's  letters  and  sermons,  a  memoir  of 
his  early  years,  and  letters  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  William 
Adams,  and  letters  from  Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  Sweet,  Rev.  J.  H. 
Knowles,  Messrs.  J.  S.  Irwin  and  FitzHugh  Whitehouse, 
Mrs.  R.  H.  Clarkson  and  Miss  Upfold. 

II.  Oral  : 

From  Rev.  Drs.  E.  C.  Benson  and  W.  J.  Gold,  Revs.  D. 
D.  Chapin,  G.  A.  Carstensen,  and  W.  W.  Webb,  Mrs. 
William  Adams,  Mrs.  Alfred  Louderback,  and  Miss  Up- 
fold. 

In  conclusion,  the  author  cannot  but  express  one  deep 
regret  connected  with  the  publication  of  the  present  volume, 
— that  Bishop  Perry,  late  historiographer  of  the  church, 
who  was  among  the  first  to  give  his  life  of  Bishop  Cobbs  a 
cordial  welcome,  and  Bishop  Kemper's  daughter,  Mrs. 
William  Adams,  who  was  most  helpful  in  furnishing  nec- 
essary material,  are  no  longer  here  to  read  it.  Were  he  be- 
ginning its  preparation  now,  the  work  as  it  is  could  not  be 
written. 

University  of  the  South, 
Martinmas,  1899. 


chronological   Index 


EARLY  YEARS 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1706  Birth  of  Jacob  Kemper,      3 

1 74 1  He  removes  to  America,      3 

1742  H.  M.  Muhlenberg  in 

America 4 

1747  Kemper  settles  in  New 

Jersey 4 

1749  Birthof  Daniel  Kemper,     4 

1759  Birth  of  Susan  Kemper, 

and  removal  to  N.  Y.,      4 

1763  Endof  the  Seven  Years' 
War  —  Dudley  Chase 
moves  from  Mass.  to 
New  Hampshire  ...      4 

1771  Marriage     of      Daniel 

Kemper 5 

1775  Birth    of     Philander 

Chase 4 

1783  End  of  Revolutionary 
War — Kemper's  mar- 
riage with  Elizabeth 
Marius 5 

1789  Birth  of  David  Jackson 

Kemper — His  baptism,     5 

1791   Philander    Chase    at 

Dartmouth  College  .  .       6 

1794  Death  of  Jacob  Kemper 
—  Longevity  of  his 
stock 6 

1796  Marriage  of  Philander 
Chase  —  Birth  of 
George  Upfold,  and  of 
Wm.  Augustus  Muh- 
lenberg        6 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1798  Chase   ordained;    first 

missionary  tour  ...      7 

1799  Advanced  to  priesthood 

— Jackson    Kemper's 
boyhood 7 

1802  To  school  at  Cheshire — 

The  Upfolds  settle  in 
Albany  .      8 

1803  Birth   of    Henry  John 

Whitehous  e — The 
Louisiana  Purchase    .      9 

1804  Kemper's  school-life  .  .     10 

1805  Chase  to  New  Orleans,      9 
Kemper    at    Dr.    Bar- 
ry's   school    and    Co- 
lumbia   college — His 
brother's  career  ...     11 

A  walk  by  the  sea  ...     12 

1807  Visits     Philadelphia — 

Correspondence    with 
his  father 13 

1808  His  brother's  execution 

— His  father's  fortune 

gone 14 

Discards  his  first  name 
— Begins  to  study  the- 
ology  15 

1809  Graduated  from  college,    16 

1810  Preparing  for  Holy  Or- 

ders   under   Dr.  Ho- 
bart 16 

181 1  Ordination   by  Bishop 

White 16 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


II 

MINISTRY 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1811  First  sermon,    and    its 

effect 19 

Return  to  New  York   .     20 
Disappointment  in  love 
— Assistant  at  united 

churches 21 

Ecclesiastical  etiquette 
— Reflex  episcopal  in- 
fluences   .....     22 
Society  in  Philadelphia,  23 
Parochial  and  diocesan 

work .       24 

Chase's  character — At 
Christ  Church,  Hart- 
ford   42 

1812  Kemper's  first  mission- 

ary    tour ;     agent    of 
Advancement  Society,  24 
In  western  Virginia  .    .     25 
Studies  and  correspond- 
ence   26 

Sermon  on  charity    .    .     27 
Religious       reading  — 

Churchmanship  ...     30 
Pastoral  character    .    .     31 
Mental  characteristics  .    32 
Tastes,  personal  appear- 
ance   33 

Birth  of  C.  S.  Hawks 
and  Vail 40 

1813  Revival  of  church  life — 

Call  to  Baltimore  .    .     34 

1814  Priested — Criticised  for 

sermon  on  the  Lord's 

Supper 35 

Second  missionary  tour,    36 

In  Ohio 37 

Upfold's  college  life  .   .    40 
And  graduation  — 
Studies  medicine    .    .    41 

1815  End  of  the   war  with 

England — White     on 
the  religious  revival  .    39 


1815 
1816 


1817 


1818 


1819 
1821 


PAGE 

•  40 

•  40 
41 
40 
40 


41 

43 
45 


45 
46 


1822 
1823 

1824 


Birth  of  H.  W.  Lee  .    . 

Kemper's  marriage  .    . 

Upfold  an  M.  D.  .    .    . 

Birth  of  J.  C.  Talbot  . 

Whitehouse  to  college . 

Upfold's  marriage — 
Studies  for  ministry  . 

Chase  in  Ohio — Society 
on  the  frontier  .  .    . 

Settles  at  Worthington, 

Primary  convention  at 
Columbus  —  Chase 
elected  bishop — Diffi- 
culties   

His  consecration  .    .    . 

To  Cincinnati  —  His 
plan  of  a  church 
school 46 

U  p  f o  1  d  assistant  at 
Trinity — And  rector 
of  St.  Luke's,  New 
York — Whitehouse  a 
B.  A 

Kemper's  second  mar- 
riage      

His  children — Reflec- 
tions on  education — 
Diocesan  life  ... 

Views  of  missions  and 
sects 

White  on  relations  with 
sects 

Birth  of  H.B.Whipple, 

Chase  to  England    .    . 

Obstructed  by  Hobart 
— Helped  by  Lords 
Gambler  and  Kenyon, 

Returns  to  America — 
Success 

Whitehouse  graduated 
in  divinity — Takes 
deacon's  orders — His 
attainments 56 


56 
58 

59 
60 

60 
58 
47 

48 
49 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1824  White  and  Kemper  on 

diocesan  tour  .    . 

1825  Another  tour — Missions 

in  the  west  .    .    . 

Report  of  united 
churches  .... 

Convention  at  Zanes 
ville  —  Opposition  to 
Chase's  plans  ... 

Trustees  of  "Theolog 
ical  Seminary  of  Ohio' 
meet 

1826  Chase  at  Gambier  .  . 
Election    controversies 

in  Pennsylvania  . 
Birth  of  R.  H.  Clarkson 

1827  Corner  stone  of  Kenyon 

College  laid  .  .  . 
Hobart  at  Detroit  . 
Election  of  H.  U.  On 

derdonk  .... 
Whitehouse  priested — 

To  Reading  .... 

1828  Upfold  to  St.  Thomas' 

New  York 

1829  Whitehouse's   report — 

To  St.  Luke's,  Roches 
ter — Lectures  on  apos 
tology 

Kemper  an  S.  T.  D. — 
Meets  Cobbs — Moth 
er's  death 

Seventy  boys  at  Gam 
bier 

1830  One  hundred  and  thirty 


60 


60 


61 


49 


50 
50 

61 

58 

50 
53 

61 

57 
56 


57 


62 


51 


A.D.  PAGE 

1830  boys     at     Gambier — 
Their  life  there  ...    51 

Education  of  Hawks, 
Vail,  Lee,  and  Talbot 
— Birth  of  Armitage  .  ,    58 

1831  Kemper  to  Norwalk — 

His  activity  in  Con- 
necticut     62 

Crisis  at  Gambier — res- 
ignation of  Chase  .    .    52 

Enters  Michigan — Re- 
flections on  his  char- 
acter and  career ...    53 

And  on  relations  of 
church  and  educa- 
tion   54 

Upfold  an  S.  T.  D.— To 
Trinity,  Pittsburg  .    .    56 

1832  Death  of  Mrs.  Kemper,    63 

1833  Whitehouse  abroad  .    .    58 

1834  Hawks  and  Vail  candi- 

dates   for     Orders  — 
Kemper  to  Green  Bay,    63 

1835  Diocese  of  Illinois  or- 

ganized— Chase  elect- 
ed bishop 63 

Confirmed — Diocese  of 
Michigan  organized — 
Whitehouse  elected 
bishop  —  Declines  — 
Brownell  to  Southwest 
— Kemper  appointed 
missionary  bishop  of 
Indiana  and  Missouri,    64 

His  consecration  ...    65 


III 
EPISCOPATE 


1835  Chase  to  England  ...    69 
Kemper   to    Indiana — 
Phases   of   life  on  the 
frontier  before  and  af- 
ter statehood   ....    70 


1835  Economic   and    social,    71 
Political, moral  and  re- 
ligious characteristics,    73 
Advance  of  the  frontier 
of  culture 81 


tu 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1835  Early  attempts  to  intro- 

duce the  church  into 
the  West 82 

Samuel  Roosevelt  John- 
son    83 

Kemper  to  St.  Louis, 
via  New  Albany  and 
Paducah 83 

The  situation  in  Mis- 
souri   84 

1836  Kemper    in    Ilhnois — 
Glimpse  of  Iowa  ...    85 
Invited  to  Green  Bay  .    86 
Chase      returns     from 

abroad 70 

Consecration     of     Mc- 

Coskry 86 

Kemper's    tour  in  the 

East 86 

Gifts  to  western  mis- 
sions   87 

1837  Kemper  College  incor- 

porate d — T rial  of 
Bishop  Smith  ....    87 

Financial  crisis — Love- 
joy  murdered  ....    88 

Chase's  experience  in 
Illinois 97 

Kemper  in  Indiana — 
Meets  Owen — Across 
Missouri  to  Fort 
Leavenworth  — 
Glimpse  of  Indian 
Territory 89 

1838  Southern  tour   ....    90 
In  Indiana — Meets  Har- 
rison   91 

Visit  to  Wisconsin    .    .    92 
Elected  bishop  of  Mary- 
land —  Testimony   of 
St.  Louis  vestry  ...    93 

School  begun 94 

Second  trip  to  Indian 
Ter. — Intense  cold .    .    95 

1839  In  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,   96 
Chase  lays  corner  stone 

of  chapel   of  Jubilee 


A.D.  PAGE 

1839  College — Second  crisis 

at  Kenyon 97 

1840  Chase's  tour  south  and 

east 98 

1 84 1  Condition   of    Kemper 

College 99 

Adams,  Breck,  and  Ho- 
bart 100 

Upfold's  sermon  on 
death  of  Harrison  .    .101 

Hobart,  etc.,  in  Wis- 
consin—  Kemper 
elected  bishop  of  In- 
diana— Killikelly  ob- 
tains funds  in  Eng- 
land— Wylie's  conver- 
sion   102 

Kemper's  sermon  be- 
fore board  of  missions,  103 

Johnson's  sermon  at 
Wylie's  ordination  — 
Influence  of  Oxford 
movement  —  Progress 
of  Lee,  Talbot,  Hawks 
and  Vail — Argument 
of  latter's  "  Comprehen- 
sive Church "  .    .    .    .  104 

1842  Kemper's  and  Adams' 

reports 108 

Settlement  and  life  at 
Nashotah 109 

1843  Kemper  College — Med- 

ical department — At- 
kinson elected  bishop 
of  Indiana — Kenyon 
saved  to  the  church    .  iio 

1844  Consecration  of  Hawks 

as  bishop  of  Missouri,  III 

1845  Kemper  in  Milwaukee 

— The  city  and  the  ter- 
ritory     112 

The  community  at  Nash- 
otah— Breck's  person- 
ality   117 

Suspension  of  Onder- 
donk 119 

Attacks  upon  Nashotah,  121 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


A. D.  PAGE 

1845  Kemper's  defence  .  .    .  121 
Chase's  report  .    .    .    .127 
Closure  of  Kemper  Col- 
lege   128 

1846  Charges  against  Kem- 

per— Killikelly's  state- 
ment      120 

Kemper's  position,  and  123 
catena  of  passages  on 
the  Roman  church  .  .    1 24 

The  Romish  diocese  of 
Chicago 125 

Spread  of  Mormonism,  126 

Sufferings  of  mission- 
aries   1 29 

Catena  of  testimonies  .  130 

Church  fairs  ....       132 

Reasons  for  the  back- 
wardness of  the  church 
in  the  West 133 

And  for  the  defective 
support  of  the  clergy  .  135 

Need  of  a  native  min- 
istry   137 

Kemper  at  Nashotah  .113 

His  course  of  life — 
Tastes  in  reading,  etc.,  1 14 

Traits — Sunday  observ- 
ance   116 

Iowa  a  state 139 

1847  Incorporation  of  Jubilee 

College 127 

And  Nashotah  House — 

Adams'    «« Mercy     to 

Babes" 141 

Primary    convention — 

Diocese  of  Wisconsin,  140 
Johnson  leaves  Indiana,  142 
Kemper  sick — Visit  to 

Nashotah 143 

1848  Wisconsin  a  state  .  ,  .112 
Glimpse  of  Minnesota,  140 
Visitation  in  Iowa  .  .139 
End  of  Mexican  War — 

Extension  of  domestic 
missionary  field  .    .    .  138 
St.  Paul's  College,  Mo.,  129 


A.  D.  PAQB 

1848  Adams'    marriage   and 

personality 141 

1849  Clarkson  to  Chicago  .  .  127 
St.  Ansgarius'  Church,  144 
Louderback  to  Daven- 
port   140 

Election,  acceptance 
and  consecration  of 
Upfold  as  bishop  of 
Indiana 144 

1850  Azel  Dow  Cole  at  Ra- 

cine   145 

Breck  and  others  to 
Minnesota  —  Cole  to 
Nashotah — His  char- 
acter     146 

Adams'  "  Elements  of 

Christian  Science  "  .  .  147 
Kemper's  character  .    .  149 
His  work  in  Wisconsin,  150 
Growth  of  Iowa — Diffi- 
culties to  contend  with 
— Clergy  ill-paid     .    .153 
Moving  of  population,  155 
Resources   of   Indiana 
missionaries    ....  154 
Louderback  at  Daven- 
port —  Travels    with 
Kemper       ....  156 
Whipple  in  orders    .    .164 

1 85 1  Election  and  consecra- 

tion of  Whitehouse  .  .  161 

1852  Work  in  Minnesota — 

Breck  to  the  Indians,  151 
H.   M.   Thompson    at 
Madison  —  A    winter 
visitation  in  Wiscon- 
sin     157 

Racine  College  founded,  150 
Last  days  and  death  of 

Philander  Chase     .    .  159 
Lee's  sermon  on  mis- 
sions —  Armitage     in 
orders 164 

1853  Whitehouse  in  Illinois 

— An  American  cathe- 
dral— Non-residence  .  162 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1853  Reflections     on     Ives' 

course — Talbot  to  In- 
dianapolis     164 

Consecration  of  Kip  as 
bishop  of  California   .  165 

1854  Progress   of    work    in 

Minnesota  —  Box  of 
clothing  to  Indian 
mission 152 

Massacre  near  Fort 
Laramie 158 

Progress  of  work  in 
Iowa — Election  and 
consecration  of  Lee  . .  165 

Kemper  Diocesan  of 
Wisconsin — James  De- 
Koven  in  Wisconsin  .  166 

The  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill 168 

1855  Bishop   White    Hall- 

Kemper  to  Superior  .  167 
Breck's  marriage  .    .    .  172 

1856  Year  of  speculation  .  .  170 

Hiram  Stone 168 

Kemper    and    Lee    to 

Nebraska —  Kemper's 
tour  in  Kansas    .    .    .169 
Stone  to  Leavenworth,  170 
Knickerbacker  in  Min- 
neapolis    174 

1857  Kemper  in  Kansas  .    .  170 
Wharton  in  Iowa — Fi- 
nancial crisis  .    .    .    .171 

Breck  to  Faribault   .    .  172 
Wilcoxson's    work     in 
Minnesota 173 

1858  Growth  of  diocese  of  Io- 

wa—Religious  revival,  171 
Minnesota  a  state  .    .    .  174 
Breck's  tour  to  the  east 
— E.  R.  Welles  at  Red 

Wing 173 

Kemper  to  Kansas  .    .  175 

1859  His  last  visitation  there 

— Diocese  organized  .  175 
G  r  i  s  w  o  1  d      College 
founded 173 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1859  DeKoven  to  Racine  .  .  168 

Election  of  H.  B.Whip- 
ple 174 

And  consecration  as 
bishop  of  Minnesota 
— Kemper  resigns  his 
missionary  jurisdiction 
— Summary  of  results 

of  his  work 176 

i860  Consecration  of  Talbot 

as  missionary  bishop  .177 

Dissension  in  Diocese 
of  Illinois 179 

The  "  compromise  trans- 
action " 180 

Bishop's  charges  vs. 
Chicago  clergy  .    .    .181 

C.  E.  Cheney  in  Chi- 
cago  183 

"  Episcopal  troubles  in 
Illinois" 184 

Lee's  special  prayer  .  .  187 

Episcopal  elections  in 
Kansas 191 

1 86 1  Lee  on  Cobbs'  death  .  187 
Whitehouse  on  Cobbs' 

death 188 

Kansas  a  state — West- 
ern view  of  seces- 
sion   185 

Criticism   of   Southern 

dioceses 187 

Iowa  and  Wisconsin  in 

the  war 186 

Civil  war  in  Colorado  .  178 
Whitehouse's   view   of 

the  war 188 

Kemper  ignores  the  war 
— His  health  ....  193 
Whitehouse    buys    a 
church 200 

1862  His  cathedral  organiza- 

tion   200 

The  war  and  the  church 

in  Missouri 190 

"  The     North-Western 

Church  " 195 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 


1 86 
194 
178 

185 
191 
186 


189 


A.  D.  PAGE 

1862  Sioux  outbreak  in  Min- 

nesota   

Kemper's  letters  . 

1863  Talbot  in  Utah,  etc 
Sack  of  Lawrence 
Churchmen  slain  . 
Indiana  threatened 
Whitehouse's      special 

prayer  —  Upfold's 
special  prayer     .    .    . 

The  war  and  education,  192 

Decline  of  religious 
prejudice — U  p  f  o  1  d  's 
testimony,  and  "  Man- 
ual of  Devotion"    .    .  199 

G.  D.  Cummins  in 
Chicago 200 

Vail  to  Iowa 205 

1864  Kemper  and  the  war  .  196 

His  special  prayer — 
His  manuscript — Let- 
ter to  S.  R.  Johnson  . 

Report  on  Sunday- 
schools  200 

Whitehouse  vs.  ration- 
alism —  The  Broad 
church  school  .    .    .    .201 

"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  202 

Upfold's  and  Kemper's 
charges 204 

Consecration  of  Vail  as 
bishop  of  Kansas    .    .  205 

1865  Upfold's  retirement  .    .  205 
Talbot  assistant  bishop 

of  Indiana 206 

Expansion  of  the 
church  —  Randall 
missionary  bishop  of 
Colorado 206 


197 


A.  D. 
1865 


1866 


1867 


1868 


1869 


1870 


PAGE 

Clarkson  in  Nebraska,  207 
Vail  in  Kansas  ....  209 
Whitehouse   on  effects 

of  war 211 

Kemper  at  general  con- 
vention   213 

Whitehouse  in  Europe,  212 
Cummins  assistant  bish- 
op of  Kentucky  .    .    .  224 
Armitage  assistant  bish- 
op of  Wisconsin  .    .    .214 
Tuttle  missionary  bish- 
op of  Montana,  etc  .    .  206 
Nebraska  a  state  .    .    .  209 
Lambeth  conference.  .  213 
Breck  to  California  .    .  216 
Death     of    Bishop 

Hawks 210 

Diocese  of  Nebraska    .  209 
The  Wisconsin  Memor- 
ial   215 

Enlargement  of  Racine 
College — Kemper    to 
general  convention.  .  216 
The     Broad      church 

movement 219 

Ritual  advance ....  220 
Catena  of  opinions  .    .  221 
Cummins  re-visits  Chi- 
cago   224 

Beginning  of    Cheney 

trial 226 

Whittaker     missionary 
bishop  of  Nevada  .    .  206 
Kemper  to  Faribault    .  216 

His  old  age 217 

Last  days  and  death  .  .  228 
Memorial  tributes  .    .   230 


I 

EARLY  YEARS 


EARLY   YEARS 

OUR  story  begins  on  the  banks  of  the  almost  spiritual 
river  Rhine,  at  the  little  town  of  Caub,  nearly  oppo- 
site St.  Goar  with  its  vineyards,  and  about  midway  between 
Mainz  and  Coblentz.  There,  in  the  year  of  grace  1706, 
there  was  born  to  an  army  officer  surnamed  Kemper  a 
son  to  whom  he  gave  at  baptism  the  name  of  Jacob. 
"  Kemper  "  is  derived  from  the  familiar  German  substantive 
Kaempfer,  thus  signifying  a  fighter,  a  champion.  The 
chief  industry  of  Caub  is  the  quarrying  of  slate.  On  a 
height  behind  the  town  rise  the  mouldering  walls  of  the 
castle  of  Gutenfels,  and  on  an  island  in  the  river  stands  a 
quaint  pentagonal  structure,  the  Pfalzgrafenstein,  where 
until  quite  recently  the  lords  of  the  territory  exacted  their 
feudal  toll  from  passing  vessels. 

As  Jacob  Kemper  matured  in  years  he  developed  some- 
what of  the  feudal  passion  for  the  possession  of  land,  and 
this  aspiration,  denied  satisfaction  in  his  native  country,  was 
inflamed  by  glowing  accounts  of  America,  as  a  veritable 
land  of  promise,  given  by  the  itinerating  agents  of  Dutch 
ship-owners,  and  also  by  news  received  from  his  wife's 
brother,  who,  excited  by  such  representations,  had  emigrated 
to  the  new  world  and  settled  at  Rhinebeck  on  the  Hudson 
river.  Thither  accordingly,  having  converted  all  his  prop- 
erty into  coin,  Kemper  removed  in  the  year  1741,  accompa- 
nied by  his  wife — the  daughter  of  a  Reformed,  or  Calvinistic, 
minister  at   Mannheim.     They  sailed  from  Amsterdam  to 

3 


4  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Philadelphia,  on  their  way  across  New  Jersey  visited  the 
settlement  at  New  Brunswick,  and  remained  some  time  with 
their  relative  at  Rhinebeck. 

The  year  following,  a  Lutheran  pastor  named  Henry 
Melchior  Muhlenberg  came  from  Hanover  to  America, 
having  accepted  an  appointment  to  minister  to  the  members 
of  his  communion  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  neighboring 
provinces. 

After  four  years'  residence  on  a  farm  in  Dutchess  county, 
many  miles  below  Rhinebeck,  Kemper  became  dissatisfied 
with  the  location  and  determined  to  remove.  His  heart 
was  still  set  on  becoming  a  great  landed  proprietor.  In 
1 747  he  revisited  New  Brunswick,  and  there  bought  an  ex- 
tensive property, — and  there,  two  years  later,  his  son  Daniel 
was  born.  The  father  prospered  in  his  new  home  until  the 
outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  caused  such  disturbance 
of  trade  and  accompanying  monetary  stringency  that  in  1759, 
— the  year  of  the  birth  of  his  youngest  daughter,  Susan, — 
he  felt  constrained  to  move  to  New  York ;  where,  after  peace 
was  concluded,  he  prospered  again. 

At  this  time — about  the  year  1763 — a  God-fearing  farmer 
named  Dudley  Chase,  of  the  fourth  generation  of  his  family 
in  Massachusetts,  moved  from  that  province,  with  his  wife 
Alice  and  their  seven  children,  into  the  forest  primeval  of 
Cornish,  New  Hampshire.  Red  Indians  were  to  be  met 
there  in  every  direction  ;  Mrs.  Chase  was  the  first  white 
woman  that  had  ever  appeared  in  that  wilderness.  The  log 
walls  of  the  rude  cabin  that  sheltered  the  growing  family 
were  raised  in  a  single  day.  Seven  more  children  were 
added  to  the  household  in  Cornish ;  the  youngest  of  them 
all,  Philander,  was  born  on  the  14th  of  December,  1775. 

After  a  course  of  study  at  King's  College,  New  York,  in 
which  he  gave  evidence  of  mental  alertness  and  love  of 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES        5 

learning,  Daniel  Kemper  married,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two  years,  and  shortly  after  threw  himself,  heart  and  hand, 
into  the  provincial  cause  in  the  War  of  Independence.  He 
held  a  colonel's  office  in  the  continental  army,  and  lavished 
his  means  in  the  service.  He  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Order  of  the  Cincinnati  immediately  upon  its  foundation. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  in  which  he  had  lost  a  fortune, 
he  lost  his  wife  also,  but  soon  provided  his  six  young 
children  with  another  mother  by  a  second  marriage. 
Elizabeth  Marius  was  a  woman  not  of  any  great  powers 
of  intellect,  but — what  was  better — of  keen  and  warm  femi- 
nine sympathies  and  practical  good  sense ;  and  she  proved 
an  excellent  housekeeper  at  a  time  when  her  husband's  af- 
fairs most  needed  looking  after.  In  the  practice  of  a  stricter 
economy.  Colonel  Kemper  moved  with  his  family  to  a 
place  in  Dutchess  county,  not  far  from  Poughkeepsie,  called 
Pleasant  Valley ;  and  there,  on  Christmas  Eve  of  the  year 
1789,  the  third  child  of  this  union  and  the  subject  of  this 
story  was  born.  Very  soon  after  his  birth  the  family  re- 
turned to  New  York  city,  Colonel  Kemper  having  received, 
through  his  old-time  General  and  friend.  President  Wash- 
ington, an  appointment  to  a  position  in  the  Custom  House 
there.  Mrs.  Kemper  had  been  a  member  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  communion,  but,  at  the  time  of  their  marriage, 
apparently,  she  and  her  husband  connected  themselves  with 
the  Episcopal  church.  Susan  Kemper,  the  Colonel's  sister, 
had  married  Dr.  David  Jackson,  of  Philadelphia ;  and  her 
vivacity  and  cordiality  of  manner,  and  the  elegant  enter- 
tainments she  gave  during  the  sessions  of  Congress,  made 
her  a  prominent  figure  in  the  social  life  of  the  young  nation's 
capital.  Through  this  combination  of  circumstances  it 
came  about  that  the  child  was  baptized,  by  the  name  of 
David  Jackson,  by  the  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  parish, 


6  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Dr.  Benjamin  Moore, — with  whose  name  is  associated  the 
revival  of  the  church  in  New  York,  sadly  weakened  by 
the  departure  of  Loyalist  families. 

Jacob  Kemper,  the  patriarch  of  his  race  in  the  new  world, 
lived  just  long  enough  to  be  remembered  by  his  little  grand- 
son, dying  in  1794,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight  years,  leaving 
behind  him  the  memory  of  a  just  man.  Here  it  may  be 
mentioned,  in  order  to  give  an  idea  of  the  extraordinary 
longevity  of  the  stock,  that  Daniel  Kemper  lived  to  the 
patriarchal  age  of  ninety-eight,  and  three  of  his  daughters 
by  his  first  wife  to  the  ages  of  ninety,  ninety-six,  and  one 
hundred  and  two  years  respectively.  Of  his  children  by 
Elizabeth  Marius,  two  died  in  infancy,  David  Jackson 
Kemper  lived  to  be  over  eighty,  and  two  others,  daughters, 
died  unmarried  at  advanced  ages,  but  short  of  eighty  years. 

Although  his  parents  earnestly  desired  him  to  study  for 
the  Congregational  ministry,  the  young  Philander  Chase  had 
no  aspiration  beyond  the  life  of  the  woods  and  the  farm 
until  his  matriculation  at  Dartmouth  College,  in  the  six- 
teenth year  of  his  age.  In  his  second  year  there  he  first 
came  upon  a  copy  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and 
that,  by  God's  grace,  effected  what  his  parents'  urgency  had 
not  been  able  to  do.  So  contagious  was  his  enthusiasm  that 
his  family  followed  him  into  the  Church.  He  was  graduated 
in  due  course  of  time  by  his  Alma  Mater,  and  the  following 
year,  1796 — in  which  he  attained  his  majority — was  mar- 
ried to  Mary  Fay. 

In  May  of  that  year,  in  the  mother-country  across  the 
sea,  George  Upfold  was  born  in  the  pleasant  county  of 
Surrey;  the  son  of  a  yeoman  farmer  and  his  wife,  both 
members  of  the  Church  of  England.  And  in  September  of 
the  same  year,  William  Augustus  Muhlenberg,  great-grand- 
son of  the  Henry  Melchior  above  mentioned,  was  born  in 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES        7 

Philadelphia.  Kemper  and  Muhlenberg  !  For  two  of  the 
most  illustrious  names  in  her  annals  the  Church  in  America 
is  indebted  to  German  ancestry. 

There  were  no  theological  seminaries  in  those  days,  no 
societies  to  assist  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  in  their  pre- 
paratory studies  ;  young  Chase  went  to  read  divinity  with 
an  English  clergyman  settled  at  Albany.  That  was  about  as 
near  his  home  as  any  place  where  he  could  enjoy  an  equal 
advantage ;  something  he  had  known  or  heard,  some  pre- 
vious connection,  would  seem  to  have  determined  his  selec- 
tion ;  and  anything  to  the  westward  always  exerted  a  power- 
ful attraction  over  him.  He  was  admitted  to  the  diaconate 
by  Bishop  Provoost,  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  York,  in  the 
summer  of  1798,  and  was  immediately  despatched  on  a 
missionary  tour  in  the  northern  and  western  parts  of  New 
York  state  by  the  newly  organized  "  Committee  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel, ' '  the  missionary  society  of  the  diocese  : 
one  of  the  first  of  such  organizations,  if  not  the  very  first, 
in  the  American  church.  Chase  visited  some  Indian  set- 
tlements on  his  way  to  Utica,  which  he  found  to  be  a  raw 
village,  the  fresh  stumps  of  trees  still  obstructing  its  streets. 
He  organized  parishes  there  and  at  other  places  ;  the  site  of 
Syracuse  was  then  a  marsh.  In  1799  he  was  advanced  to 
the  priesthood  by  the  same  bishop,  and  was  put  in  charge  of 
the  church  at  Poughkeepsie,  where,  to  supplement  his 
slender  stipend,  he  taught  in  an  academy,  thus  beginning 
his  educational  career.  Already  he  was  looking  earnestly 
westward,  troubled  in  heart  and  conscience  as  he  reflected 
upon  the  ignorance,  infidelity  and  depravity  of  the  rapidly 
growing  settlements  upon  the  frontier. 

Meantime  the  little  Kemper  was  growing  up,  "a  pretty 
boy,"  as  he  was  remembered  by  many,  "  with  long  fair  ring- 
lets,"   and  was  going  to  school  with  his  sisters  in  New 


8  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

York.  He  was  his  mother's  favorite,  for  the  other  boys,  his 
brother  (who  afterward  entered  the  navy)  and  especially  his 
half-brother,  Daniel,  were  turbulent  and  reckless  spirits. 
There  subsisted  a  particularly  strong  bond  of  affection  be- 
tween him  and  his  eldest  half-sister,  Sophia.  From  earliest 
boyhood  he  manifested  a  highly  susceptible  temperament, 
especially  with  regard  to  religious  impressions ;  herein  re- 
vealing the  close  temperamental  tie  between  him  and  his 
mother, — a  woman  of  deeply  devout  and  affectionate  dis- 
position. The  whole  family  attended  both  morning  and 
evening  prayer  every  Sunday  at  St.  Paul's  Chapel.  As  the 
century  wore  to  its  close,  his  father's  circumstances  im- 
proved, with  the  country's,  and  the  family  moved  into  a 
finer,  better  furnished  house.  The  dining-room  in  particular 
was  furnished  with  expense:  years  after,  the  bishop  re- 
membered how  he  went  as  a  boy  with  his  mother  to  pur- 
chase andirons,  mantel  ornaments,  and  India  china, — a  tea 
set  and  punch  bowls.  Then,  too,  his  father  could  satisfy 
his  literary  tastes  by  forming  a  library,  in  which  such 
standard  works  as  Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets,  Hume's 
History  of  England,  and  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire  were  contained.  At  this  period,  the  Kem- 
pers  spent  their  summers,  in  part,  upon  Long  Island.  An 
Episcopal  Academy  having  been  established  at  Cheshire, 
Connecticut,  the  boy  Jackson  was  sent  there  in  1802,  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  to  finish  his  schooling. 

That  year,  George  Upfold,  then  six  years  old  and  their 
only  child,  was  brought  by  his  parents  to  America.  His 
father,  to  whom  by  right  of  seniority  the  homestead  in  Sur- 
rey belonged,  by  some  underhanded  dealing  of  a  brother  was 
ousted,  and  resolved  to  leave  England.  He  settled  in 
Albany,  supporting  himself  by  teaching  school,  Mrs.  Upfold 
assisting   by   teaching   the   younger   pupils.      She    was    a 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES        9 

woman  of  sincere  piety  and  charity  and  much  strength  of 
character.  She  started  the  first  Sunday-school  in  that  part 
of  the  country  ;  it  was  of  the  primitive  type,  designed  to 
impart  the  rudiments  of  education  to  the  ignorant  poor.  So 
depressing  to  one  of  her  ardent  religious  temperament  was 
the  lack  of  zeal  in  the  Episcopal  church,  particularly  in  the 
diocese  of  the  latitudinarian  Provoost,  that  for  a  time  she 
was  on  the  point  of  connecting  herself  with  the  Methodists, 
and  was  only  finally  restrained  from  the  step  by  their  re- 
quirement that  she  put  away  her  wedding  ring.  Her  hus- 
band became  a  warden,  and  ultimately  for  many  years 
senior  warden,  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany. 

In  1803  was  born  in  New  York  one  whose  life  was  des- 
tined to  be  interwoven  with  Philander  Chase's  at  its  close : 
Henry  John  Whitehouse,  son  of  James  Whitehouse,  of  an 
old  English  family,  who,  like  the  Upfolds,  had  lately  come 
to  America.  Mrs.  Whitehouse  came  of  a  family  that  was 
socially  superior  to  her  husband's,  and  that  had  given  many 
sons  to  the  priesthood  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Soon  after  the  Louisiana  purchase,  several  of  the  new- 
comers in  New  Orleans,  belonging  to  different  evangelical 
denominations,  combined  to  form  a  kind  of  union  organiza- 
tion for  public  worship  which  they  called  "The  Protestant 
Church,"  and  agreed,  as  a  compromise,  to  call  an  Episcopal 
minister.  Through  Dr.  Benjamin  Moore,  then  assistant 
bishop  of  New  York,  and  a  hearty  friend  of  domestic  mis- 
sions. Philander  Chase  was  invited  to  complete  the  organiza- 
tion. He  left  his  charge  at  Poughkeepsie,  accordingly,  in 
the  year  1805,  and  sailed  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans, 
where,  after  much  diplomacy,  he  succeeded  in  bringing  the 
somewhat  anomalous  society  into  accord  with  parochial 
models,  under  the  name  of  Christ  Church,  and  in  securing 
for  himself  rectorial  authority.     The  new  parish  placed  it- 


10  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

self  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  of  New  York,  he 
being  quite  as  accessible  and  more  efficient  than  the  nearest 
bishop  geographically, — the  moribund  Madison,  of  Vir- 
ginia, To  eke  out  his  salary,  inadequate  for  the  support  of 
his  growing  family.  Chase  opened  a  school  in  New  Orleans. 
The  boy  Kemper  meantime  was  not  happy  in  the  acad- 
emy at  Cheshire,  which  was  regarded,  apparently,  too  much 
in  the  light  of  a  house  of  correction  by  parents  of  unman- 
ageable boys.  It  may  be  that  he  was  somewhat  fastidious, 
used  as  he  was  to  refined,  feminine  environment, — but  a 
coarse  and  rude  element  was  undoubtedly  in  the  ascendency 
there.  On  one  occasion  his  tormentors  forced  him  to  smoke 
until  he  was  sickened, — with  a  lifelong  result :  he  con- 
tracted therefrom  such  an  aversion  to  tobacco  that  he  never 
touched  it  again.  In  after  life  he  always  believed  that  his 
mother's  influence  and  prayers  saved  him  from  contamina- 
tion at  that  trying  time.  Another  result  his  experience  had, 
in  that  he  derived  from  it  an  invincible  dislike  of  boarding 
schools.  He  was  convinced  that  home  influence  was  better. 
He  wrote  to  his  father,  begging  him  to  take  him  away  from 
the  school,  but  for  a  time  Colonel  Kemper  deprecated  such 
removal.  The  correspondence  between  father  and  son  in 
the  year  1804  brings  out  the  character  and  disposition  of 
the  former  in  an  interesting  and  attractive  light ;  he  writes 
to  the  boy  of  fourteen  as  if  he  were  a  young  man,  exhibit- 
ing an  implicit  confidence  in  him — which  was,  in  truth,  de- 
served,— and  a  graceful  deference  to  his  opinions  and  re- 
gard for  his  wishes.  There  is  nothing  more  graceful  in  life 
than  friendship  between  father  and  son.  In  one  letter  Colo- 
nel Kemper  seeks  to  impress  upon  him,  even  thus  early,  and 
with  every  consideration  for  his  inclination,  the  importance 
of  reflecting  upon  the  choice  of  a  profession  :  upon  that 
choice  his  future  success  and  happiness  will  depend  ;   there- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       11 

fore  he  must  take  his  time  about  it.  He  prays  God  to  di- 
rect his  son's  mind  in  the  matter.  In  July,  he  writes  of  his 
horror  (deepened  by  his  piety  and  his  Federal  principles)  at 
the  murder  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  In  the  ensuing  autumn, 
he  consented  to  Jackson's  return  home.  As  one  more  year 
of  preparation  was  necessary  before  the  lad  could  enter 
college,  he  was  placed  under  the  instruction  of  one  of  the 
finest  classical  scholars  and  most  successful  teachers  in  the 
country, — the  Rev.  Dr.  Edmund  Barry,  an  Irishman,  and  a 
graduate  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Among  his  new 
schoolmates  were  Benjamin  Onderdonk  and  William  Wyatt, 
the  latter  being  his  deskmate,  and  ever  after  a  faithful 
friend.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  1805,  at  the  close  of  his 
sixteenth  year,  he  entered  Columbia  College,  then  under  the 
presidency  of  Bishop  Moore,  one  of  its  early  graduates. 
Onderdonk  and  Wyatt  accompanied  him  thither,  and 
among  other  classmates  he  made  friends  with  J.  W.  Francis 
and  Murray  Hoffman. 

We  now  approach  the  tragedy  in  his  family.  His  half- 
brother  before  mentioned,  Daniel  Kemper,  Jr.,  was  a  rest- 
less, adventurous  spirit,  who  had  never  acquired  any  fixed 
principles  of  religion  or  morals,  owing  to  his  having  in- 
stinctively adopted,  as  a  youth,  the  doctrines  of  French  in- 
fidelity, widely  disseminated  in  this  country  by  Thomas 
Jefferson,  now  at  the  head  of  the  government.  Colonel 
Kemper  had  been  at  great  expense  in  starting  his  wayward 
son  in  life, — and  now  the  young  man,  infatuated  with  the 
projects  of  the  Venezuelan  agitator,  Francisco  Miranda,  for 
crushing  the  power  of  Spain  in  the  new  world,  abandoned 
every  advantage  and  sacrificed  brilliant  prospects  and  op- 
portunities, to  go  on  a  mad  filibustering  expedition  in  the 
Caribbean  Sea.  Obscurely  connected  with  Miranda's  de- 
signs were  the  fantastic  schemes  of  Aaron  Burr  for  detach- 


12  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ing  from  the  American  Union  the  western  states  and  terri- 
tories, which  were  to  be  united  with  the  revolted  Spanish 
colonies  in  a  Napoleonic  empire  that  was  to  stretch  to  the 
western  ocean  and  the  tropic  of  Capricorn. 

With  an  attention  undistracted  by  such  visions,  Jackson 
Kemper  was  pursuing  his  studies  at  Columbia.  Living  at 
home,  he  enjoyed  his  college  course  and  the  friendships 
made  there.  He  found  that  for  him  winter  was  the  best 
season  for  study.  He  went  once,  for  the  only  time  in  his 
life,  to  the  theatre,  and  was  disappointed ;  the  play  was 
"  Hamlet,"  and  it  was  not  up  to  his  expectations.  In  the 
school  at  Cheshire  he  had  acted  in  some  play,  taking  the 
part,  it  is  said,  of  "Isabella," — presumably  the  Spanish 
Queen  ;  it  is  not  likely  that  it  was  the  heroine  of  "  Measure 
for  Measure."  This  visit  to  the  theatre,  and  the  tempera- 
ment revealed  in  a  record  of  a  walk  he  took  with  a  college 
mate  along  the  Long  Island  shore,  remind  one  that  it  was 
the  day  of  discovery  of  natural  and  poetic  beauty  in  Amer- 
ica, when  the  charm  and  grandeur  of  Trenton  and  Niagara 
Falls  and  the  White  Mountains  were  being  made  known, 
— heralding  the  rise  of  schools  of  landscape  art,  both  garden- 
ing and  painting,  and  poetry  ;  that  it  was  the  day  of  Irving 
and  Paulding,  of  Joseph  Dennie  and  Brockden  Brown, — 
the  almost  forgotten  fathers  of  American  literature.  The 
passage  referred  to  exhibits  the  spirit  in  which  Bryant's 
poetry  originated.  The  comrades  strolled  by  farms  and  or- 
chards to  the  Narrows,  and  thence  along  "  the  sandy  shore, 
which  was  scattered  profusely  with  old  shells,  until  the 
Ocean  itself  limited  our  sight.  Such  a  view  !  — the  bound- 
less Ocean  before  us,  a  rich  country  on  each  side,  and  the 
Sun  urging  toward  the  West  yet  shining  with  full  splendor, 
raised  in  my  mind  such  ideas  and  thrilled  my  soul  with  such 
delight  as  I  had  but  seldom  felt  before,  and  made  us  deter- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       13 

mine  when  Summer  returned  often  to  take  a  pedestrian  jour- 
ney. Before  we  returned  home  we  had  walked  twenty 
miles,  and  felt  no  fatigue." 

The  fervor  of  this  description  renders  it  hard  to  under- 
stand— but  the  fact  is  that  Kemper  experienced  great  diffi- 
culty in  English  composition.  He  was  not  often  as  inspired 
by  his  subject.  He  applied  himself  pretty  closely  to  his 
studies,  and  at  the  end  of  his  Sophomore  year,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1807,  was  what  we  would  call  "run  down."  In 
fact,  he  seemed  so  delicate  that  his  parents  apprehended 
some  deep-seated  disorder,  some  weakness  of  the  lungs,  and 
accordingly  gladly  encouraged  his  plan  of  a  vacation  outing 
in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.  His  father  keenly  re- 
gretted that  his  diminished  resources  would  not  enable  him 
to  provide  for  a  more  extended  tour.  At  the  outset,  the 
youth  visited,  with  interest,  the  college  at  Princeton.  At 
Trenton  he  greatly  admired  the  bridge  ("the  handsomest  I 
have  ever  seen")  over  the  Delaware  river.  Philadelphia 
pleased  him  much ;  he  stayed  with  his  relatives,  the  Jack- 
sons  ;  and  after  a  course  of  sight-seeing  decided  that,  home 
associations  excepted,  he  liked  the  city  better  than  New 
York.  From  a  point  beyond  Philadelphia,  he  wrote  his 
father,  in  the  middle  of  September,  that  his  vacation  was 
more  than  half  over  ;  that  he  wanted  to  do  some  reading 
before  returning  to  college  ;  that  he  strongly  desired  to  com- 
plete his  college  course,  but  not  if  his  father  were  anyway 
unable  to  afford  it.  (Colonel  Kemper  was  becoming  deeply 
involved,  financially,  through  heavy  endorsements  for  his 
son  Daniel ;  Jackson  had  seen  his  mother  weep,  with  appre- 
hension of  ruin,  at  having  to  sign  papers  for  him.)  His 
father  responded  affectionately  :  he  is  as  desirous  as  his  son 
that  he  should  return  to  college — "but  alas  !  my  situation 
is     precarious.        Your     mama    and    myself    have    daily 


14  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

anxiously  reflected."  They  are  fearful  lest  renewal  of  study 
should  cause  a  relapse  of  his  regained  health.  He  knows 
enough  Latin  for  the  law :  would  it  not  be  well  to  contem- 
plate entrance  into  a  lawyer's  office?  The  writer  would 
"by  no  means  enforce  this  measure,  but  only  recommend  it 
to  your  consideration."  If  his  heart  is  still  set  upon  re- 
entering college,  "  a  kind  Providence  may  enable  me  to 
bear  the  expense,  and  I  will  do  so  with  the  greatest  pleasure." 
In  his  reply,  the  youth  appealed  to  his  father's  own  ex- 
perience :  he  had  left  college  without  taking  his  degree,  and 
ever  after  regretted  it.  He  also  appealed  to  the  judgment 
of  a  kinsman,  a  lawyer,  who  earnestly  advised  him  to  finish 
his  course ;  and  concluded  by  dutifully  leaving  the  matter 
for  his  father  to  decide, — and  the  indulgent  father  decided 
upon  college. 

His  property  was  well-nigh  gone,  consumed  by  his  sadly 
abused  and  ruinous  devotion  to  his  eldest  son.  That  in- 
dulgence which  was  justified  in  Jackson's  case,  by  his  con- 
sistent conduct  and  career,  was  hopelessly  misdirected  in  the 
case  of  the  unworthy  Daniel,  now  hastening  to  his  disgraceful 
end.  The  expedition  that  he  had  joined  was  a  ludicrous 
and  lamentable  failure,  and  he  was  captured  and  put  to 
death.  This  tragical  consummation  took  place  in  the  year 
1808.  Colonel  Kemper  was  completely  crushed  by  it ;  his 
fortune  gone  for  the  second  time,  the  son  in  whose  promise 
and  welfare  he  was  so  wrapped  up  having  come  to  a  violent 
end,  and  he  himself  verging  upon  sixty  years, — for  years 
thereafter  he  was  utterly  depressed  both  in  spirits  and 
finances.  And  yet  his  affliction  cannot  be  said  to  have 
shortened  his  days,  seeing  that  he  lived  on  for  nearly  forty 
years.  He  was  able  to  retain  his  pleasant  home,  in  a  pleas- 
ant neighborhood.  Jackson  took  the  reduction  of  his  allow- 
ance and  the  loss  of   his   patrimony  very  philosophically  : 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       16 

"it  is  not  fortune  that  I  covet,"  he  wrote,  "  but  the  being 
freed  from  real  property  and  complicated  misfortunes." 
The  one  indelible  impression  that  would  seem  to  have  been 
left  upon  his  mind  by  his  brother's  fate  was  a  conviction  of 
the  unwisdom  of  political  scheming.  He  conceived  a 
rooted  aversion  to  all  such  manceuvering,  and  carried  his 
scruples  touching  a  strict  demarcation  between  Church  and 
State  to  such  a  point  that  he  even  abstained  from  voting. 

The  unfortunate  Miranda  perished  in  a  Spanish  prison ; 
but  the  movement  that  he  had  initiated  progressed  rapidly 
until  in  a  few  years  her  continental  dependencies  in  both 
Americas  were  torn  from  the  crown  of  Spain. 

The  subject  of  our  story  was  always  known  at  home  and 
among  his  friends  by  the  name  of  "Jackson"  simply, 
though  up  to  the  date  of  his  correspondence  with  his  father 
just  noted  he  had  usually  signed  his  full  name.  At  that 
time,  in  consequence,  presumably,  of  something  that  was 
said  or  that  happened  during  his  visit  to  his  Uncle  Jackson, 
he  quietly  and  finally  dropped  his  baptismal  name, 
"David." 

All  of  his  best  friends  had  long  divined  his  fitness  for  the 
sacred  ministry.  The  sweetness  and  evenness  of  his  tem- 
per, the  harmony  of  his  talents,  his  unsullied  purity  of 
character  and  motive,  and  the  unbroken  course,  from  boy- 
hood, of  his  Christian  nurture,  had  already  set  him  apart,  in 
their  estimation.  But  he,  though  for  some  time  he  had 
been  yet  more  deeply  interested  than  they  in  the  prospect, 
with  characteristic  tenderness  of  conscience,  hesitated.  He 
shrank  from  the  responsibility  of  a  decision;  he  would 
leave  it  to  divine  direction;  he  must  not  presume,  not 
having  had  an  evident  call  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  (He  was 
always  instinctively  reticent  upon  the  subject  of  his  religious 
impressions  and  experience.)     Meantime,  while  yet  in  col- 


16  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

lege,  he  joined  a  class  that  had  been  formed  by  Dr.  John 
Henry  Hobart,  the  active  and  influential  assistant  minister 
of  Trinity  Church,  and  that  met  weekly  for  theological 
study,  under  the  direction  of  a  clerical  instructor. 

In  the  month  of  August,  1809,  he  was  graduated,  as  the 
valedictorian  of  his  class,  at  Columbia  College.  He  then 
entered  upon  a  year  of  theological  training,  reading  the 
standard  English  commentators,  divines,  and  homilists,  un- 
der the  supervision  of  Bishop  Moore  and  Dr.  Hobart. 
These  studies  were  broken  only  by  occasional  excursions 
into  the  country  and  visits  to  relatives,  and  by  correspond- 
ence, in  which  he  delighted  and  indulged  himself  with 
youthful  fervor,  in  spite  of  the  time  and  cost  involved. 

His  friend  Wyatt  was  ordered  deacon  at  the  autumnal 
ember  season  of  18 10,  and  went  immediately  to  work  on 
Long  Island,  much  to  Kemper's  envy.  His  scruples  were 
now  quieted,  and  he  was  impatient  for  ordination,  but  had 
to  wait  yet  a  few  months  until  he  should  attain  his  majority, 
— the  canonical  age.  In  December  he  was  fully  prepared, 
and  his  ordination  had  been  provided  for, — when,  to  his 
sorrow  and  suspense,  his  bishop  was  stricken  with  paralysis. 
Unwilling  to  undergo  an  indefinite  postponement,  he  ap- 
plied to  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  diocese  for 
recommendation  to  the  Presiding  Bishop  ;  and  on  the  itih 
of  March,  the  second  Sunday  in  Lent,  in  the  year  181 1, 
he  was  ordained  to  the  diaconate  by  Bishop  William  White, 
in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia. 


II 

MINISTRY 


n 

MINISTRY 

IMMEDIATELY  after  his  ordination,  the  young  deacon 
went  to  his  ordainer's  house  to  dine, — for  such  was 
Bishop  White's  hospitable  rule  upon  these  occasions, — and 
in  the  afternoon  preached  his  first  sermon,  in  St.  James' 
Church.  Kemper  was  not  and  never  became  a  great 
preacher ;  to  explain  the  curiosity  and  interest,  the  high  ex- 
pectations, the  veritable  sensation  excited  by  that  his  maiden 
homiletical  effort,  it  is  to  be  mentioned  that  the  clergy  of 
the  city  were  all  men  advanced  in  years.  The  bishop  was 
sixty-three ;  Dr.  Robert  Blackwell,  his  senior  assistant,  was 
ready  to  resign  for  age  ;  Dr.  Joseph  Pilmore,  that  pioneer 
of  evangelicalism,  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  was  seventy-seven 
years  old, — any  of  them  old  enough  to  be  the  grandfather 
of  the  neophyte  of  twenty-one,  whose  personality  rather 
than  the  quality  of  his  discourse  must  account  for  the  im- 
pression produced.  His  auditors  doubtless  felt,  and  justly 
so,  that  they  were  participating  in  an  event  full  of  promise 
for  the  future, — a  pledge  of  the  reviving  energies  of  the 
church  after  many  years  of  lassitude  and  depression. 

The  following  Tuesday,  he  was  sounded  as  to  an  assist- 
antship  by  a  committee  from  the  united  churches.  The 
mother  parish  of  Christ  Church  with  its  offshoots,  St. 
Peter's  and  St.  James',  were  associated  under  the  bishop's 
supervision,  and  served  by  him  with  the  cooperation  of 
assistant  clergy.  The  following  Sunday — the  third  in  Lent 
— Kemper  preached  three  times  ;  in  the  evening  to  the  col- 

19 


20  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ored  congregation  of  St.  Thomas'  Church,  He  then  re- 
turned to  New  York  to  fill  appointments  that  he  had  made 
before  leaving,  and  this  took  him  several  weeks  to  do. 
Among  them  was  one  with  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowen  of  Grace 
Church  (afterward  the  third  bishop  of  South  Carolina) 
who  was  anxious  to  have  him  settle  in  the  city.  He  re- 
turned a  polite,  circuitous  reply  to  a  communication  from 
the  Philadelphia  vestry,  inviting  him  to  pay  their  city  an- 
other visit,  for  better  acquaintance.  To  his  friends  he 
confessed  that  he  deprecated  the  imputation  of  ingratitude  ; 
he  had  been  treated  with  the  utmost  civility  and  hospitality, 
— but  he  felt  the  delicacy  of  the  situation  :  to  preach  on 
trial  went  against  his  grain.  Meantime  his  feelings  were 
being  far  more  deeply  harrowed  by  a  yet  more  delicate  situ- 
ation ;  for  now  we  reach  the  romance  of  his  life. 

We  are  acquainted  with  his  impressionable  temperament. 
Something  other  than  clerical  engagements  had  drawn  him 
homeward  in  a  week.  He  and  a  well-tried  friend  of  long 
standing — a  college  classmate — were  both  ardently  in  love 
with  the  same  young  lady, — one  of  rare  beauty  of  figure, 
feature  and  expression,  charm  of  manner,  sweetness  of  dis- 
position ;  and  she  (now  that  they  all  have  long  been  dust,  it 
can  be  no  breach  of  confidence  to  reveal  it)  was  almost 
equally  interested  in  either.  Kemper's  bearing  throughout 
this  trying  situation,  in  which  he  suffered  acutely,  was  char- 
acterized by  truly  romantic  refinement,  sensitive  honor,  spir- 
itual elevation.  His  father  was  impoverished,  and  he  had 
no  resources,  no  income,  or  visible  means  of  supporting  a 
family.  He  felt  too  that  his  first  duty  was  to  help  his 
aging  parents.  So  he  resigned  his  prospect  of  happiness  to 
his  friend.  But  the  latter  was  not  to  be  outdone  in  gener- 
osity ;  he  yielded  with  equal  chivalry ;  both  agreed  to 
abide  by  her  decision, — and  she  decided  for  the  friend. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      21 

And  so  a  crisis  which  by  unregulated  passion  is  only  too 
often  rendered  ridiculous  or  revolting,  made  the  subject  of 
nauseous  rant  and  sentimentality,  settled  in  some  countries 
by  barbarous  pistol-shot  or  stiletto,  or  followed  by  equally 
silly  suicide,  was  here  resolved  according  to  the  unyielding 
principles  of  morality,  manliness,  and  sound  good  sense. 

This  forgotten  love  affair  of  nigh  a  hundred  years  ago  is 
the  tenderest,  most  beautiful  passage  in  our  hero's  life.  He 
never  forgot  that  early  love ;  it  was  an  idealizing  and  hal- 
lowing presence  in  after  years ;  but  it  left  a  scar  upon  his 
heart, — a  disappointment  that  should  not  have  been. 

In  utter  ignorance  of  the  emotional  tragedy  that  was 
transpiring,  the  church  people  of  Philadelphia  were  express- 
ing regret  at  his  refusal  of  their  call.  His  aunt,  Mrs.  Jack- 
son, a  skilful  social  diplomatist,  now  rose  to  the  occasion ; 
telling  every  one  who  alluded  to  it  in  her  presence  that  he 
could  not  well  refuse  what  had  never  been  offered,  and  that 
as  to  the  invitation  to  preach,  his  engagements  in  New  York 
prevented  his  acceptance  at  that  time.  The  strain  of  the 
situation  was  relieved  by  the  positive  resignation  of  Dr. 
Blackwell,  in  whose  stead  an  assistant  now  had  to  be  chosen. 
So,  on  the  14th  of  May,  Kemper  was  notified  of  his  unani- 
mous election  to  the  position  by  the  vestry,  his  salary  to 
amount  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling,  "with 
such  extra  allowance  as  the  vestry  vote  assistants  from  time 
to  time;  such  allowance  at  present  being  three  hundred 
dollars."  Notice  of  this  action  was  publicly  read  in  the 
three  associated  churches,  with  the  appended  proviso  (a 
quaint  and  early  instance  of  the  referenduni)  that  it  should 
be  considered  final,  "unless  a  majority  of  the  congregation 
entitled  to  vote  at  the  annual  election  for  churchwardens 
and  vestrymen  shall  declare  in  writing  in  one  month  to  the 
churchwardens  or  either  of  them  that  they  object   to   the 


22  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

same  election ;  in  which  case  it  shall  be  considered  as  null 
and  void."  On  the  twentieth  of  the  same  month,  Kemper 
signified  his  acceptance,  and  having  waited  long  enough  for 
any  objectors  to  be  heard  from,  journeyed  to  Philadelphia  in 
June. 

Such  punctilios  were  a  feature  of  an  age  far  more  formal 
than  ours,  and  a  society  that  stood  stiffly  upon  its  dignity, 
and  were  certain  to  arise  when  one  party  to  a  contract 
dreaded  the  mortification  of  a  refusal  and  the  other  was 
sensitively  scrupulous  against  seeming  to  seek  a  position. 
Readers  of  Bishop  Richard  Channing  Moore's  life  will  re- 
call the  protracted  negotiations  between  him  and  the  diocese 
of  Virginia,  antecedent  to  his  election  to  its  episcopate. 
"Come  and  let  us  hear  you.  Would  you  come  if  you 
were  elected?  "  "  Elect  me,  and  I  will  go  and  see."  The 
intricacies  of  such  correspondence  sometimes,  to  modern 
sense,  touch  the  ludicrous  and  overshoot  the  mark,  suggest- 
ing the  subtleties  of  the  most  calculating  policy,  and  mutual 
suspicion  of  motive. 

Thus  at  last,  providentially,  it  came  to  pass  that  the  young 
minister  was  brought  into  the  kindliest  and  most  intimate 
relations,  reaching  over  twenty  years,  with  the  distinguished 
and  much  experienced  bishop  who  then  presided  over  the 
American  church,  whose  character  he  came  more  and  niore 
to  resemble,  and  whose  spirit  he  transmitted  to  another 
generation.  It  was  an  invaluable  discipline.  A  memorable 
interweaving  of  Episcopal  influences  has  been  remarked 
among  our  older  bishops.  The  high-church  Seabury  gradu- 
ated the  evangelic  Griswold,  the  moderate  White,  the  high- 
church  Hobart,  and  the  latitudinarian  Provoost,  the  evangel- 
ical Channing  Moore.  In  the  third  generation,  while  these 
types  generally  became  more  pronounced,  they  blended,  and 
these  oscillations  came  to  equilibrium,  in  the  catholic-minded 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      23 

Kemper, — given  as  amends,  as  it  were,  by  Hobart  to  White, 
— and  in  Cobbs,  who  went  forth  from  Moore's  diocese, 
evangelical,  but  a  stronger  churchman  than  he ;  while  from 
Griswold's  influence  Hopkins  emerged  and  steadily  grew 
higher.  The  lives  of  these  nine  sum  up  as  much  of  the 
experience  of  the  American  church  as  as  yet  belongs  to 
history. 

Kemper  spent  the  first  three  months  after  his  arrival  in 
Philadelphia  with  his  Aunt  Jackson, — who  repeated  to  him 
a  caution  that  had  been  given  her,  "not  to  let  him  be 
spoiled  by  such  general  approbation"  as  he  had  received, — 
and  then  took  rooms  at  William  Murdock's.  The  population 
of  the  city  at  that  time  was  approaching  one  hundred  thou- 
sand ;  it  was  the  largest  in  the  country, — but  New  York 
was  rapidly  gaining  upon  it.  Having  been  for  a  time  the 
seat  of  government,  it  had  acquired  somewhat  of  a  metro- 
politan character,  and  during  the  French  Revolution  and 
ascendency  of  Bonaparte  many  aristocratic  exiles  made  it 
their  home  and  contributed  to  its  culture.  Some  made  a 
livelihood  by  teaching  languages  and  arts,  especially  music ; 
others  brought  scientific  knowledge  and  the  principles  of  the 
Encyclopaedia.  A  diversified  and  party-colored  life  had  re- 
placed the  simplicity  and  monotony  of  the  provincial  period  : 
the  age  of  contrasts  had  begun.  Roman  Catholicism  and 
deistic  infidelity,  the  social  refinements  and  license  of  Ver- 
sailles, were  all  in  evidence.  Beside  the  French  emigrants 
there  were  many  German  and  Irish  Catholics;  Michael 
Egan,  a  member  of  the  Franciscan  order,  had  just  been 
consecrated  their  bishop. 

Amid  these  complex  conditions,  young  Kemper  main- 
tained the  even  tenor  of  his  course.  The  society  in  which 
he  chiefly  mingled  boasted  itself  as  the  best  in  America,  and 
doubtless  there  was  none  superior.     His  manners  bore  to  the 


24  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

end  the  stamp  of  its  elegance,  but  he  was  never  diverted  by 
its  attractions  from  the  active  work  of  the  ministry.  The 
communicants  of  the  three  parishes  that  he  served  num- 
bered two  hundred  at  the  time  of  his  arrival ;  the  baptisms 
that  year  amounted  to  upward  of  that  number.  Any  Sun- 
day morning  or  afternoon  when  he  happened  to  be  disen- 
gaged he  devoted  to  holding  service  at  Germantown, 
where  there  was  no  church  ;  and  if  he  could  not  visit  there 
on  a  Sunday,  he  would  give  the  people  a  week-day  service. 
He  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  diocesan  convention  at 
the  first  meeting  he  attended,  and  was  reappointed  time 
after  time  until  the  year  1817  inclusive.  He  was  a  prime 
mover  in  the  formation,  in  the  spring  of  181 2,  of  the  Society 
for  the  Advancement  of  Christianity  in  Pennsylvania;  an 
organization  that  marked  an  epoch  in  the  life  of  the  diocese 
and,  viewed  in  the  light  shed  upon  it  by  his  later  career,  in 
general  religious  history  as  well.  Its  primary  object  was  to 
increase  the  supply  of  clergy,  and  so  meet  the  most  pressing 
need,  and  thus  and  by  every  other  means  in  its  power, — for 
example,  the  distribution  of  prayer-books,  also  a  crying 
need, — to  help  revive  the  parishes  that  were  ready  to  die  and 
to  strengthen  the  feeble  ones  throughout  the  diocese.  Kem- 
per was  chosen  as  the  first  missionary  of  the  society,  and, 
having  secured  a  substitute  to  perform  his  parochial  duties 
during  his  absence,  he  set  out  early  in  August,  just  after  the 
breaking  out  of  the  second  war  with  England,  upon  his  first 
tour  of  ecclesiastical  discovery  and  exploration.  He  held  ser- 
vice at  Radnor,  thence  drove,  in  a  sulky,  to  Lancaster,  where 
Joseph  Clarkson,  the  earliest  of  Bishop  White's  ordinands, 
was  rector,  and  thence  to  York,  Chambersburg,  where  he 
had  service  in  the  courthouse,  and  Huntingdon,  where  he 
found  a  log  church  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation,  a  parson- 
age lapsing  to  ruin,  and  a  little  flock  without  a  pastor,  still 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      25 

faithful  to  the  church  and  attached  to  her  worship.  All 
along  his  way,  he  met  or  heard  of  scattered  families  of 
church  people,  and  at  one  point  a  rumor  came  to  him  of  a 
settlement  of  them,  from  beyond  sea,  in  the  upper  part  of  a 
remote  valley.  Early  in  September  he  reached  Pittsburg, 
and  preached  in  Trinity  Church ;  thence  proceeded  south- 
ward, up  the  Monongahela  valley,  to  Brownsville,  whereabout 
he  found  many  members  of  his  communion,  their  churches 
closed ;  and  then  crossed  the  state  line,  stopping  at  Charles- 
ton, in  the  western  part  of  Virginia.  Here  he  found  a 
clergyman  settled,  the  only  one  in  that  portion  of  the  state, 
whose  name  was  Doddridge ;  and  with  him  enjoyed 
brotherly  intercourse,  which  vastly  widened  his  missionary 
horizon.  His  new  friend  was  of  the  opinion  that  half  of  the 
original  settlers  of  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee — the 
only  states  as  yet  beyond  the  AUeghanies — had  been  Epis- 
copalians, and  that  it  was  not  too  late  to  follow  and 
endeavor  to  recover  some  of  them.  He  had  given  much 
anxious  thought  to  the  condition  of  the  church  in  the 
western  part  of  the  United  States,  and  said  that  the  first 
step  should  be  to  form  a  convention  of  all  the  clergy  west  of 
the  mountains.  Two,  he  knew,  were  at  work  in  Ohio,  and 
one  at  least,  by  the  name  of  Moore,  at  Lexington,  Kentucky. 
He  impressed  upon  his  young  guest  the  necessity  of  imme- 
diate action,  for  the  salvation  of  the  church's  prospects  in 
the  West.  Kemper  then  retraced  his  steps,  and  visited 
Beaver  on  the  Ohio  river,  thirty  miles  below  Pittsburg. 
The  people  there  had  worshipped  at  first  in  the  jail,  then 
in  a  schoolhouse,  at  the  time  of  his  visit  in  the  courthouse ; 
they  seemed  to  be  utterly  ignorant  of  the  liturgy.  At  this 
point  he  turned  his  face  eastward  and  homeward,  recrossing 
the  state  in  the  month  of  October,  revisiting  upon  his  way 
as  many  as  possible  of  the  places  he  had  stopped  at  before. 


26  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

He  returned  to  Philadelphia  greatly  improved  in  health, 
which  had  been  poor,  partly,  no  doubt,  in  consequence  of 
his  disappointment, — and  with  a  store  of  fresh  impressions 
and  conclusions  drawn  from  his  observation ;  among  others, 
that  "the  apathy  of  a  congregation  is  principally,  almost 
entirely,  owing  to  the  pastor  who  presides  over  it,"  that 
"  the  custom  throughout  the  state  of  being  anti-rubrical  has 
been  attended  with  most  fatal  consequences  to  our  Zion," 
— that  is,  with  exceeding  lukewarmness  of  ecclesiastical 
principle, — and  above  all,  that  the  West  offered  a  wide,  ex- 
tremely important  and  inviting  mission  field.  He  could  re- 
port beside  that  upon  his  tour  he  had  baptized  thirteen 
children.  The  zeal  that  his  experience  awakened  in  his 
soul  was  communicated  to  others,  and  his  report  rendered  to 
the  Society  that  had  sent  him  out,  and  through  it  to  the 
diocesan  convention  at  its  next  meeting,  greatly  excited  if 
indeed  it  may  not  be  said  to  have  created  interest  in  domes- 
tic missions,  raising  anew  the  question  of  an  episcopal  ap- 
pointment for  the  region  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 

Another  symptom  of  increasing  strength  is  the  fact  that 
this  year  a  fund  was  started  and  collections  were  made  in 
some  of  the  churches  of  the  diocese  for  the  endowment  of 
the  Pennsylvanian  episcopate. 

Kemper  now  devoted  his  spare  hours  to  improving  his 
acquaintance  with  Hebrew,  and  corresponded  in  regard  to 
his  studies  Avith  the  learned  Samuel  Farmar  Jarvis,  who  en- 
larged upon  the  importance  and  value  of  Biblical  criticism, 
and  regretted  that  the  Socinians  by  taking  it  up  had  created 
a  prejudice  against  it.  He  also  corresponded  with  the  dis- 
tinguished evangelical,  James  Milnor,  who  had  just  effected 
his  "breach  with  the  world,"  abandoning  a  political  career 
that  promised  distinction.  Milnor  addressed  his  young 
correspondent  in  a  reverential  tone  that  strikes  one  as  re- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      27 

markable,  coming  from  a  man  many  years  the  senior. 
About  this  time  the  young  deacon's  piety  was  deepened  and 
his  homiletical  style  received  an  infusion  of  unction  through 
readings  in  an  evangelical  organ  entitled  "  The  Christian 
Observer,"  several  articles  in  which  affected  him  profoundly. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  persuasiveness  of  his  preaching ; 
among  those  who  were  deeply  interested  and  moved  by  it 
was  the  talented  young  William  Augustus  Muhlenberg,  then 
a  student  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  It  seems  ap- 
propriate here  to  illustrate  his  method  by  a  representative 
sermon  on  Charity,  preached  in  all  the  churches  of  his 
charge.  Its  text  was  taken  from  the  familiar  tenth  verse  of 
the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Galatians. 
The  preacher  enforced  his  theme  by  (i),  the  Almighty's 
command,  illustrated  by  His  goodness  as  shown  in  the 
works  of  nature,  and  (2),  the  example  of  Jesus,  in  con- 
sidering which  he  burst  into  the  following  apostrophe  and 
prayer:  "And  didst  Thou,  blessed  Jesus,  spend  thy  life 
for  us,  for  our  example  ?  Wast  thou  touched  with  a  feeling 
for  our  infirmities  ?  Didst  thou  enter  the  hovel  of  distress, 
assuage  the  grief  of  a  sufferer,  and  dispel  from  his  abode 
misery  and  want  ?  O  wonderful  was  thy  condescension  and 
infinite  thy  love  !  And  can  we  refuse  to  imitate  the  pattern 
which  thou  hast  set  us  ?  May  our  right  hands  forget  their 
cunning,  may  our  tongues  cleave  to  the  roof  of  our  mouths 
when  this  is  obliterated  from  our  memories  !  Effuse,  Al- 
mighty Saviour,  thy  powerful  grace  into  our  hearts,  enable 
us  to  be  continually  given  to  all  good  works,  and  in  imi- 
tation of  thee  to  delight  in  benefiting  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  men. 

"  Christians,  behold  your  Saviour  going  from  city  to  city. 
Crowds  of  people  with  the  halt  and  the  diseased  gather  around 
him.     And  lo  !  the  eyes  of  the  blind  are  opened,  and  the 


28  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ears  of  the  deaf  are  unstopped.  The  lame  man  leaps  as  an 
hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb  sings.  The  demons  of 
hell  obey  him.  Thousands  are  fed  by  his  power.  At  his 
command  the  billows  cease  their  raging,  and  the  insatiable 
grave  yields  up  its  dead.  It  was  a  jubilee  in  Israel ;  their 
habitations  sounded  with  the  voice  of  health  and  joy. 
Scarce  was  sickness  known,  while  fear  and  dismay  fled 
from  the  trembling  penitent  and  faith  and  hope  possessed 
his  soul.  Thus  did  the  holy  Jesus  labor  in  our  cause,  while, 
though  fatigued  in  body  and  in  mind,  he  frequently  spent 
the  whole  night  in  praying  for  us. 

"Surely  the  contemplation  of  the  Saviour's  life  must 
kindle  the  smallest  spark  of  faith  into  a  perfect  flame  of  de- 
votion ;  it  must  convince  us  that  without  charity  we  cannot 
even  hope  for  heaven." 

The  Saviour  removed  from  poverty  its  old  time  stigma 
and  even  consecrated  it  by  bearing  it  himself  throughout 
his  earthly  life.  Henceforth  it  becomes  an  occasion  for  the 
practice  of  many  Christian  virtues  and  graces,  not  the  least 
of  which  is  the  privilege  of  relieving  it  afforded  to  wealth. 
"Riches  are  talents  committed  to  our  trust;  as  they  ac- 
cumulate our  obligations  increase."  And  the  obligation  is 
also  a  blessing,  affording  exercise  to  "the  finest  feelings  of 
our  nature, — the  pure  and  exalted  sensations  of  benefi- 
cence." The  thought  of  judgment  to  come  should  impress 
upon  the  rich  the  duty  of  helping  their  poor  neighbors, 
while  the  attendant  blessing  should  make  t"he  duty  a  de- 
light. "The  blessing  of  God  accompanies  those  actions 
which  are  well  pleasing  in  his  sight.  How  extremely  in- 
teresting, how  captivating,  how  endearing  is  this  passage  of 
Holy  Writ :  '  He  that  hath  pity  upon  the  poor  lendeth 
unto  the  Lord.'  They  are  his.  .  .  .  And  for  every 
act  of  mercy  he  will  rcjKiy  us  tenfold.     He  considers  every 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      29 

kind  expression  as  made  to  himself,  and  every  benevolent 
performance  we  confer  upon  our  fellow-mortals  as  if  they 
promoted  his  own  happiness. 

"  Our  obligation  is  complete  in  one  simple  truth:  This 
is  the  will  of  God." 

The  foregoing  is,  no  doubt,  an  immature  effort, — naturally 
and  inevitably  so.  It  may  be  said  to  lack  the  graces  of 
style  and,  with  exception  of  the  passages  quoted,  to  be  a 
little  dry.  "  Charity  "  is  perhaps  limited  too  narrowly  in  it 
to  mere  almsgiving ;  but  we  must  make  allowance  for  this 
because  of  the  occasion  of  its  delivery :  a  collection  was 
to  be  taken  up  for  the  poor  of  the  parish.  And  in  truth 
the  few  paragraphs  quoted  unveil  the  depths  of  Kemper's 
spiritual  nature  and  the  secret  of  his  success.  Fa- 
miliarity with  Scripture,  glowing  love  of  his  Saviour,  im- 
parting to  his  expressions  affecting  power,  unquestioning  and 
loyal  obedience  to  the  divine  will, — these  are  what  impressed 
his  hearers ;  and  they  were  rendered  the  more  engaging  by 
the  fresh,  boyish  face,  shapely  figure,  and  pleasant  voice  of 
the  speaker,  appearing  in  a  pulpit  where  for  years  only 
grizzled  heads  had  been  seen.  As  he  preached,  the  delight 
of  beneficence  beamed  from  his  features,  until  he  seemed 
an  embodiment  of  his  theme.  And,  to  repeat,  the  last 
sentence  quoted  contains  the  key  and  clue  to  his  career : 
"  the  will  of  God," — that  was  always  his  animating  princi- 
ple. Probably  no  one  ever  lived  to  whom  the  call  of  duty 
was  more  constraining, — who  yielded  a  more  implicit  obedi- 
ence to  the  voice  of  conscience ;  for  his  was  absolute. 

He  used  to  preach  regularly  to  the  negroes  of  St.  Thomas'. 
We  have  noticed  how  freely  he  would  quote  Scripture  in  his 
sermons ;  he  was  not  accustomed  to  quote  poetry,  save  lines 
and  stanzas  of  hymns.  "Rock  of  Ages"  was  his  favorite 
hymn : 


30  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

In  my  hand  no  price  I  bring : 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling. 

He  rendered  divine  service  in  an  ideal  manner,  with  sim- 
plicity and  feeling.  He  loved  the  study  of  divinity,  and 
made  it  a  practice  to  read  theological  works,  both  the 
standard  Anglican  doctors,  Hooker,  Pearson,  Bull,  Barrow, 
Butler,  Waterland,  etc.,  and  current  treatises  as  well.  This 
is  illustrated  by  a  passage  in  a  letter  to  James  Milnor,  in 
answer  to  a  request  for  a  list  of  theological  books :  "I  rec- 
ollect being  very  much  pleased  a  few  years  ago  with  a  work 
by  Vicesimus  Knox  on  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  benefits  of 
that  sacrament  are  fully  and  clearly  explained  by  good 
Bishop  Wilson  in  his  works.  I  am  at  present  highly  de- 
lighted with  a  book  just  published  which  I  trust  will  prove  a 
great  blessing  to  this  country :  "  Magee,  on  Atonement  and 
Sacrifice."  He  also  made  it  a  rule  daily  to  read  a  chapter 
of  the  New  Testament  in  the  original  Greek.  He  used 
Bishop  Andrewes'  book  of  devotion  and  Bishop  Wilson's 
"Sacra  Privata,"  but,  as  before  said,  was  exceedingly  ret- 
icent about  his  religious  frames  and  feelings,  and  delicate 
about  discussing  those  of  others.  As  was  inevitable  in  one 
who  had  been  trained  by  Dr.  Hobart,  he  was  a  strong, 
hearty  and  loyal  Churchman,  but  owing  to  Bishop  White's 
temperate  influence,  not  as  stiffly  so  as  his  first  preceptor. 
To  quote  again  from  his  correspondence  with  Milnor  :  "I 
have  not  infrequently  been  perplexed  in  mind,  wondering  at 
the  mysterious  providence  of  God  in  permitting  a  Church 
whose  doctrines  are  apparently  an  exact  transcript  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  to  continue  in  so  lifeless  a  state.  But 
those  days  of  coldness  are,  I  trust,  fleeing  away.  Many  are 
becoming  sensible  of  the  vast  importance  of  their  immortal 
souls,  who,  if  they  continue  seeking,  will  soon  glory  in  the 
cross  of  Christ."     To  illustrate  his  ecclesiastical  attitude  yet 


riSHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       31 

more  clearly,  throwing  it  into  relief  against  a  sharply  con- 
trasting background  :  he  learned  from  Archbishop  Seeker's 
sermons  against  popery  that  for  six  ages  before  the  Reforma- 
tion "both  clergy  and  laity  were  so  universally  ignorant  and 
vicious  that  nothing  was  too  bad  for  them  to  do  or  too 
absurd  for  them  to  believe.  .  .  .  Transubstantiation 
was  an  article  of  their  faith."  As  this  was  a  consequence 
of  admitting,  beside  Scriptural  authority,  the  rule  of  tradi- 
tion, he  deduced  the  conclusion  "that  the  only  thing  we 
have  to  rely  on  in  Christianity  is  the  written  word  of  God. 
.  .  Worshipping  or  praying  to  saints  and  angels  are 
expressly  forbidden  therein,"  and  there  is  no  example  of 
either  for  at  least  three  hundred  years  after  the  Apostles' 
time  ;  yet  Roman  Catholics  ' '  pray  to  them  in  the  house  of 
God — and  in  the  same  posture  in  which  they  pray  to  God, — 
to  bestow  grace,  pardon  sin,  save  from  hell  and  place  in 
heaven.  They  pray  to  St.  Joachim,  who,  they  say,  was 
Mary's  father,  to  use  his  influence  with  her,  and  they  even 
pray  her  by  virtue  of  her  parental  authority  to  command  of 
her  son  what  they  want." 

His  temperament  was  pastoral  rather  than  sacerdotal  or 
oratorical.  He  was  in  his  element  when  making  a  round  of 
parish  visits,  which  he  found  to  be  an  easy  and  eligible 
means  of  imparting  religious  instruction  ;  and  his  tenderness 
and  personal  kindness  in  times  of  trouble,  sickness,  or  death 
endeared  him  deeply  to  his  people.  His  prayers  and  minis- 
trations by  the  sick  bed  were  especially  affecting. 

He  thoroughly  enjoyed  simple  social  visiting,  both  pay- 
ing and  receiving,  and  all  his  life  long  was  very  particular 
about  calling  on  strangers  and  returning  calls.  He  was  a 
generous  giver  to  every  good  cause,  exemplifying  with 
utmost  consistency  the  principles  of  his  sennon  above 
quoted ;    indeed,    his   friends   thought   him   liberal    above 


32  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

what  he  could  or  ought  to  afford, — yet  he  was  never  in 
want. 

Politically,  he  was  bred  in  the  Federal  school,  and  was 
never  known  to  express  dislike  of  any  one  as  emphatically  as 
of  Thomas  Jefferson.  This  was  remarked  in  one  who  was 
exceedingly  restrained  in. criticism  of  others.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  inherited  from  his  New  York  Dutch  ancestry  and 
connections  their  long-standing  prejudice  against  New  Eng- 
land. 

He  was  not  a  great  man  intellectually,  not  a  thinker, 
scholar,  writer  or  eloquent  preacher.  Such  is  the  testimony 
of  one  who  knew  him  best  and  loved  him  most, — and  none 
was  better  aware  of  these  facts  than  he  himself.  He  had 
the  most  modest  view  of  his  powers  and  attainments,  and 
was  never  satisfied  with  them  but  ever  strove  to  improve 
himself.  Like  Washington,  he  felt  and  lamented  his  lack  of 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  past,  with  history  and  letters. 
He  was  lacking  in  imagination,  as  is  shown  by  his  indiffer- 
ence to  poetry,  the  drama  and  fiction.  He  did  not  care  for 
Shakespeare,  and  abhorred  Byron  ;  to  that  poet  of  reprobate 
nature  he  had  an  antipathy  second  in  intensity  only  to  that 
that  he  felt  toward  Jefferson.  Among  poets  he  preferred 
Cowper,  and  his  favorite  prose-writer  was  Addison.  He 
read  and  enjoyed  Scott's  romances  as  they  came  out. 
Among  American  authors,  he  met  and  liked  both  Irving  and 
Cooper.  He  read  newspapers  on  principle,  believing  that 
a  minister  should  keep  up  with  what  is  going  on  in  the 
world.  He  was  by  no  means  lacking  in  humor  of  a  gay  and 
gentle  kind  ;  one  of  his  most  attractive  qualities,  which  he 
never  lost,  was  a  certain  boyish  light-heartedness  and  zest  in 
living.  He  had  a  quick  and  keen  appreciation  of  the  ludi- 
crous side  of  things,  expression  of  which,  like  Bishop  Gris- 
wold,  he  thought  it  a  duty  to  restrain. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       33 

As  we  have  seen,  he  was  affected  by  beauty  and  sublimity 
of  landscape  and  scenery.  He  loved  the  mountains,  and 
spoke  enthusiastically  of  the  great  falls  of  Niagara.  He  ob- 
served, too,  the  details  of  nature,  especially  the  outlines  of 
leaves ;  he  was  fond  of  botany  and  other  branches  of  natural 
history, — hence  it  was  a  rare  pleasure  to  him  to  meet,  in 
later  years,  the  ornithologist  Audubon. 

He  had  a  taste  for  bright  colors  and  for  sweets,  but  fought 
off  the  use  of  stimulants  until  the  end  of  his  life.  He 
dressed  plainly  and  wore  no  jewelry,  but  was  scrupulously 
neat  in  all  his  habits.  He  shared  the  opinion  of  his  day  re- 
garding amusements,  holding  that  attendance  at  balls, 
theatres,  and  horse-races,  and  all  card-playing,  were  entirely 
proscribed  to  the  clergy,  and  were  indeed  inconsistent  with 
faithful  church  membership.  In  Philadelphia  in  his  time 
card-playing  and  dancing  only  began  after  the  clergy  had 
left  a  party;  it  was  considered  an  open  disrespect  to  a 
minister  to  play  or  dance  in  his  presence. 

In  height  he  was  a  trifle  under  the  masculine  average,  be- 
ing five  feet,  seven  inches  tall ;  his  shoulders  square,  hands 
and  feet  shapely  and  delicate ;  of  erect  and  graceful  figure 
and  springy  gait.  His  voice  was  sweet  but  not  very  strong, 
and  he  had  no  ear  for  music.  His  complexion  was  fair,  of 
good  color  but  not  ruddy,  save  as  to  the  lips.  A  miniature 
taken  of  him  by  Tott,  soon  after  he  was  priested,  shows  a 
face  wide  in  proportion  to  its  length,  thick  brown  hair 
combed  from  left  to  right,  looking  as  if  bloAvn  by  the  wind, 
short  side-whiskers,  bright  hazel  eyes,  a  kissable  mouth,  the 
lower  lip  ripe  and  full,  chin  fine  and  strong, — altogether  a 
handsome  face  and  pleasant  expression. 

The  degree  to  which  his  work  was  telling  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  in  1813  the  communicants  of  the  united 
churches  numbered  three  hundred,  an  increase  of  fifty  per 


34  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

cent,  in  the  two  years  only  that  he  had  labored  among  them. 
The  confirmation  class  that  year  reached  the  extraordinary 
number  of  one  hundred  and  eighty,  Muhlenberg  being  one. 
To  the  effect  of  the  war  in  deepening  the  sense  of  depend- 
ence on  God  this  veritable  revival  must  largely  be  ascribed, 
but  far  more  to  the  evangelical  awakening  which  had  been 
in  progress  for  some  years,  whose  energies  the  war  may  be 
held  to  have  liberated. 

Kemper  was  now  placed  upon  the  Standing  Committee  of 
the  diocese,  upon  which  he  served  for  many  years.  Al- 
ready a  friend  of  his  foresaw  that  he  was  destined  to  be- 
come a  bishop.  In  July  he  was  called  to  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Baltimore,  to  assist  Dr.  James  Kemp,  who  notified 
him  of  the  election  by  letter.  The  salary  was  fixed  at  a 
thousand,  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars,  thirty- 
three  and  a  third  cents,  with  perquisites  amounting  to  two 
hundred  dollars,  and  the  rent  of  a  fine  house.  He  replied 
immediately,  expressing  his  "grateful  sensibility  "  of  the  favor 
shown  him  by  the  offer,  and  consulted  his  friends  with  re- 
gard to  it.  The  united  vestries,  in  alarm,  applied  to  Bishop 
White  to  prevail  upon  him  to  postpone  his  decision  until 
after  their  meeting,  the  end  of  the  month !  He  promptly 
notified  them  that  he  had  decided  to  decline,  and  that  in 
any  case  delay  would  put  him  in  the  indelicate  position  of 
seeming  to  offer  himself  to  the  highest  bidder. 

After  a  diaconate  of  nearly  three  years,  he  was  advanced 
to  the  priesthood,  in  Christ  Church,  on  the  23d  of 
January,  the  third  Sunday  after  the  Epiphany,  in  the  year 
1814.  Upon  this  interesting  occasion  his  excellent  father 
wrote  :  "  We  do  all  unite  in  our  most  sincere  and  hearty 
gratulations  on  your  advancement  in  the  Church.  You  are 
now  consecrated  a  Priest  of  the  Lord,  and  may  His  good 
Spirit  which  first  directed  your  choice  to  the  ministry  keep 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      35 

you  faithful  in  the  same  to  your  life's  end."  Abundantly 
was  that  paternal  petition  granted,  in  ways  they  little 
dreamed  ! 

Kemper's  was  not  a  nature  that  needed  the  discipline  of 
adversity.  He  was  in  harmony  with  his  environment ;  his 
character  and  career  are  an  illustration  of  the  truth  em- 
bodied in  the  exquisite  lines  of  Tennyson  : 

The  wind  that  beats  the  mountain  blows 

More  softly  round  the  open  wold  ; 
And  gently  comes  the  world  to  those 

That  are  cast  in  gentle  mold. 

The  winds  of  heaven  did  not  often  visit  his  face  too 
roughly,  or  the  censure  of  the  world  disturb  his  pure  and 
peaceful  spirit.  But  now,  just  after  his  ordination,  he  had 
to  experience  the  first  breath  of  hostile  criticism,  and  his 
sensitive  soul  was  depressed.  He  had  preached  a  sermon 
upon  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  which  gave  great 
offence ;  he  was  accused  of  teaching  that  its  reception  was 
necessary  to  salvation.  Milnor  aiid  another  called  upon 
him  to  inquire  about  it,  "The  unusual  circumstance  of 
being  openly  abused  has  in  a  measure  depressed  my  spirits," 
he  wrote  ;  "  one  woe  at  least  is  now  removed  :  that  of  hav- 
ing all  persons  speak  well  of  me."  He  confessed  to  a  feel- 
ing of  compunction  at  having  entered  the  ministry  so  young 
and  with  so  little  theological  preparation.  "I  am  even 
growing  rusty  as  respects  general  literature  and  the  lan- 
guages," he  said.  His  humble  estimate  of  himself  and 
sense  of  deficiency,  rendered  keener  by  the  strictures  to 
which  he  was  subjected,  made  him  long  to  retire  for  a  time 
from  the  world  ;  like  St.  Paul,  he  was  ready  to  go  for  three 
years  into  Arabia,  for  self-discipline  and  improvement, — but 
he  dared  not  turn  his  back  upon  his  active  work  so  long. 


36  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

His  health,  which  through  all  these  early  years  of  his 
ministry  continued  delicate,  may  partly  account  for  this  sen- 
sitiveness to  the  breeze  of  unpopularity ;  and  that  in  turn 
reacted  upon  it.  He  began  to  show  symptoms  of  overwork, 
most  noticeably  by  a  weakening  of  the  voice,  and  his  physi- 
cian recommended  cessation  of  his  regular  duties  and  a  tour 
of  several  months.  The  Advancement  Society  was  ready 
to  engage  him  as  its  missionary,  as  before.  He  did  not  feel 
disposed  to  go,  for  he  wanted  to  study ;  but  he  realized  that 
"  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  such  a  service  is  not  the  dictate 
of  affectation  or  enthusiasm,  but  is  just  what  Scripture  de- 
mands." Milnor's  ordination  was  hastened,  to  supply  his 
place  in  the  city,  and  in  August — the  month  when  Wash- 
ington was  sacked  and  burned  by  the  British, — he  started  on 
his  way.  One  cannot  but  be  struck  by  this  providential  or- 
dering of  his  life  ;  just  at  the  times  when  his  health,  both 
mental  and  physical,  most  demanded  it,  he  was  enabled  to 
enjoy  those  months  of  wandering  that  are  so  essential  to  the 
experience  and  perfect  development  of  every  young  man. 
He  rode  a  horse  that  had  been  bought  for  the  trip,  and  from 
his  letters  on  the  way  we  know  that  a  safe  beast  had  been 
selected,  for  it  proved  exceedingly  slow.  At  the  outset  the 
heat  of  the  dog-days  was  very  great.  He  revisited  all  the 
towns  and  settlements  where  he  had  stopped  before,  to  see 
what  progress,  if  any,  had  been  made,  and  to  keep  the 
flame  burning,  and,  further,  made  a  detour  to  a  dilapidated 
log  church  of  the  old  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  the  colonies.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Pittsburg 
he  found  that  there  were  four  clergymen,  but  against  all  of 
them  the  people  had  grounds  of  complaint  from  which  it 
would  appear  that  they  were  of  decadent  latitudinarian 
stamp,  devoid  of  zeal,  hopelessly  secularized, — "  a  name  of 
dishonor."     His  notes  of  a  Sunday  spent  at  Butler,  thirty 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      37 

miles  north  of  Pittsburg,  preserve  the  memory  of  a  novel 
and  picturesque  experience.  "  As  the  courthouse  was  to  be 
occupied  by  the  Presbyterians  in  the  morning,  a  few  Church- 
people  assembled  with  me  in  a  private  room,  I  began  by 
performing  the  whole  of  the  baptismal  service  and  baptizing 
three  children  ;  then  administered  the  Communion  to  six 
persons,  and  baptized  an  adult."  In  the  afternoon  he  held 
service  in  the  courthouse,  and  preached  to  a  throng  of  hear- 
ers ;  baptized  a  child  in  private  ;  and  then  dined  (by  that 
time  he  must  have  needed  refreshment)  with  an  intelligent 
lady  whose  husband  had  died  a  few  months  before,  leaving 
her  with  a  large  family  of  interesting  children.  "  She  was 
very  anxious  to  have  me  read  the  burial  service  over  her 
husband's  grave.  The  request  was  a  strange  one,  but  after 
consideration  I  signiiied  my  willingness  to  comply  if  it 
would  afford  any  consolation  to  the  widow,  and  if  her 
friends  would  accompany  us  to  the  grave.  Just  before  sun- 
set we  left  the  house,  she  having  gone  before  us  with  her 
children  and  servants.  After  walking  a  mile,  we  came  to  a 
large  field  on  a  hill  full  of  sheep.  In  the  centre  was  the 
grave,  palisaded  by  rails  and  covered  with  wild  flowers.  I 
began  the  service  with  feelings  somewhat  agitated.  The 
setting  sun,  the  bird's-eye  view  of  the  town,  the  sheep,  the 
variegated  landscape,  and  the  mourners  opposite  me,  all 
rendered  the  scene  deeply  interesting." 

He  now  crossed  the  state  line,  penetrating  further  west 
than  he  had  gone  on  the  previous  journey,  into  the  north- 
eastern corner  of  Ohio,  becoming  thus  the  first  missionary 
of  the  Church  to  enter  what  had  been  and  was  still 
known  as  "  tlie  Connecticut  Reserve."  Here  he  passed 
good  part  of  the  autumn.  He  encountered  extremely 
primitive  conditions:  "In  the  same  place  which  serves  as 
kitchen,   drawing-room   and  parlor  I  have  slept  at  night." 


33  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Sometimes  a  single  drinking  cup  did  duty  for  a  whole 
family  !  The  roads  were  shockingly  bad  ;  his  horse  had  to 
wade  and  pick  his  way  over  logs ;  once  he  was  thrown  from 
his  horse,  and  contracted  rheumatism  from  a  severe  wetting. 
"  For  a  month  I  was  traveling  through  a  country  nearly 
inundated  with  rain ;  the  people  were  poor,  the  accommoda- 
tions bad  ;  sometimes  I  was  benighted  and  sometimes  ex- 
posed to  dangers.  To  all  these  things  it  appeared  to  me  I 
would  soon  become  reconciled."  In  truth,  the  underlying 
bent  of  his  religious  nature,  his  particular  taste,  endowment, 
and  vocation,  were  then  and  there  fully  revealed  to  him.  In 
many  counties  through  which  he  rode  long  vistas  of  useful- 
ness opened  upon  his  mental  gaze.  The  people,  however 
destitute  of  apparent  necessaries  of  life,  proved  to  be  highly 
intelligent ;  true  Yankees  that  they  were,  they  had  already 
begun  to  establish  public  libraries  !  Church  people,  he  dis- 
covered, were  scattered  about  like  sheep  in  a  wilderness ; 
many  there  were  who  had  not  lost  their  zeal,  and  who  read 
the  service  and  a  sermon  every  Sunday  in  their  homes.  He 
preached  atCanfield,  Poland,  and  Boardman,  baptized,  upon 
this  part  of  his  tour,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  souls,  and 
administered  the  Communion  to  many  "who  had  despaired 
of  ever  enjoying  its  reception  again."  He  helped  to  form 
several  congregations,  and  to  create  a  demand  for  the 
prayer-book  to  the  extent  of  a  thousand  copies.  He  pleaded 
with  the  parents  of  a  promising  youth  to  let  him  study  for 
the  ministry  in  Philadelphia;  and  retraversed  his  stt-ps, 
filled  with  enthusiasm  by  his  new  experiences,  seriously  con- 
sidering within  himself  whether  he  were  not  called  to  this 
fresh  field  of  work.  He  was  ready  and  desirous  to  cast  in 
his  lot  with  the  rising  West,  if  only  it  were  consistent  with 
"some  filial  duties  of  a  pecuniary  nature,"  (that  is,  the 
support  of  his  aging  parents,  to  which,  all  through  these 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       39 

years,  and  for  some  time  to  come,  he  largely  contributed). 
It  was  now  the  latter  part  of  November ;  the  weather  was 
cold,  and  snow  was  daily  expected,  as  he  rode  back  through 
Pennsylvania.  He  reached  home  again  in  December,  having 
accomplished  his  mission,  as  his  bishop  testified,  in  a  man- 
ner "  preeminently  conducive  to  the  interesting  purposes 
contemplated  by  the  Society." 

Soon  after  his  return,  the  country  was  gladdened  by  news  of 
Jackson's  victory  at  New  Orleans,  and  of  peace  with  England. 

In  his  address  to  the  diocesan  convention  of  1815,  Bishop 
White  spoke  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country  for  some 
time  past,  and  of  the  concurrent  spread  of  a  serious  spirit  and 
interest  in  religious  subjects.  He  urged  the  clergy  to  distin- 
guish carefully  between  genuine  religious  affection  and  mere 
animal  sensibility  or  faulty  passion,  causing  impiety,  Phari- 
saical ostentation  or  infidelity  in  different  natures.  One 
happy  consequence  of  the  revival  was  that  at  Norristown, 
where  for  many  years  "  the  Episcopal  religion  "  had  been  at 
a  low  ebb,  a  large  and  elegant  church  was  built  and  conse- 
crated. At  this  period,  moreover,  the  custom  of  sitting 
during  singing  of  the  psalms  and  hymns  in  public  worship 
began  to  give  way  "to  the  more  comely  posture  of  stand- 
ing." James  Milnor  took  priest's  orders  this  year,  while 
young  Muhlenberg  became  a  candidate,  and  began  to  visit 
the  sick  and  poor  in  Kemper's  company. 

The  daughters  of  General  William  Lyman,  lately  de- 
ceased, (he  had  been  a  special  consul  in  London,  under 
President  Madison),  had  returned  from  Europe  and  opened 
a  large  and  fashionable  boarding-school  for  girls  in  Philadel- 
phia. Kemper  became  deeply  interested  in  the  eldest  of 
these,  Jerusha.  (Unfeeling  parents,  to  inflict  a  name  that 
sounds  like  profane  swearing  upon  an  unoffending  and  help- 
less girl  !)     Miss  Lyman  was  three  years  older  than  he,  and 


40  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

a  person  of  rare  cultivation.  For  some  time  the  obligation 
he  was  under  to  help  support  his  father  conflicted  with  their 
marriage,  but  at  length,  in  the  year  1816,  the  way  was  made 
plain,  and  after  a  wedding-tour  to  Lakes  George  and  Cham- 
plain, — the  only  pleasure  trip  he  ever  took, — they  began 
housekeeping  in  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush's  old  home.  His  mar- 
riage added  to  the  interest  felt  in  him  by  the  people  of 
Philadelphia ;  it  was  a  stimulating  influence  to  him  men- 
tally :  it  was  always  hard  for  him  to  write,  and  his  wife 
helped  him  greatly  by  criticism  of  his  sermons  ;  altogether, 
it  was  an  ideal  union,  marked  by  a  harmony  of  opinion  and 
sentiment  that  was  broken  only  by  her  untimely  death,  after 
two  years. 

In  the  period  so  far  covered  by  this  chapter,  several 
children  were  born  the  threads  of  whose  lives  were  destined 
to  be  intertwined  with  our  hero's  life.  It  is  to  be  remarked 
how  many  of  these  were  from  the  South.  In  181 2,  Cicero 
Stephens  Hawks  was  born  in  Newberne,  North  Carolina,  and 
Thomas  Hubbard  Vail  in  Richmond,  Virginia.  The  latter, 
however,  was  of  Northern  parentage  ;  he  was  baptized  in 
the  Monumental  Church  at  Richmond  ;  after  his  father's 
death  the  family  returned  to  New  England.  In  18 15, 
Henry  Washington  Lee  was  born  in  Hamden,  Connecticut, 
and  in  18 16,  Joseph  Cruikshank  Talbot  in  Alexandria,  Vir- 
ginia. Meantime  young  Henry  Whitehouse  finished  school 
in  New  York,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen  entered  Columbia 
College.  At  the  same  age,  George  Upfold  had  entered 
Union  College,  Schenectady,  then  under  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott.  His  life  there  was  happy ;  he  had  been 
well  prepared,  was  a  hard  student,  excelling  in  English  com- 
position, reading  widely  outside  the  requirements  of  the  cur- 
riculum ;  he  was  also  a  good  companion, — in  fact,  both  at 
school  and  college  he  was  a  leader  in  both  study  and  sport. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      41 

At  Schenectady  he  was  well  grounded  in  Greek,  ancient 
history,  and  the  English  classics,  especially  Shakespeare, 
Bacon,  and  Milton ;  but  the  highest  privilege  he  enjoyed 
there  was,  without  doubt,  contact  with  the  distinguished 
educator  then  at  the  head  of  the  institution.  That  was  an 
influence  for  a  lifetime  ;  and  he  used  often  to  say  that  he 
had  never  met  a  man  who  understood  boys  and  their 
management  better  than  Dr.  Nott.  While  yet  a  mere  lad, 
he  improved  his  college  vacations  by  the  study  of  medicine, 
which  he  continued,  after  taking  his  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts  in  1814,  under  the  direction  of  a  physician  in  Albany, 
until  the  end  of  the  following  year,  when  he  went  to  New  York 
to  become  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Valentine  Mott,  and 
to  attend  lectures  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
whence  he  was  graduated  in  May,  181 6,  just  after  he  had 
passed  his  twentieth  birthday ;  when  the  degree  had  been 
conferred  he  was  asked  his  age,  and  was  told  that  if  it 
had  been  known  before  he  would  have  had  to  wait  a 
year  for  graduation,  until  he  had  attained  his  majority, — 
but  it  was  admitted  that  he  had  fairly  earned  it.  He 
now  began  the  practice  of  medicine  at  Albany,  and  also  the 
study  of  divinity.  His  mother's  prayer  had  always  been 
that  her  only  son  might  become  one  of  God's  ministers,  and 
nothing  more  than  this  is  known  regarding  his  change  of 
profession.  In  June,  181 7,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah 
Graves,  a  churchwoman,  of  New  York,  both  having  just 
completed  their  twenty-first  year,  and  from  that  time  his 
wife's  calm,  strong,  and  unvarying  good  sense  was  the 
dominant  influence  of  his  life.  A  few  months  after,  he  was 
admitted  as  a  candidate  for  Holy  Orders,  and  the  following 
winter  returned  to  New  York,  to  prosecute  his  theological 
studies  under  the  direction  of  Bishop  Hobart,  whose  influ' 
ence  over  him,  ecclesiastically,  was  thenceforth  profound. 


42  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

It  is  time  to  return  to  Philander  Chase,  who,  in  the  year 
that  we  have  reached,  was  entering  his  period  of  highest 
activity.  We  are  acquainted  with  the  leading  points  of  his 
experience  and  character,  sufficiently  to  comprehend  his 
ruling  passion  and  to  interpret  his  life's  work.  He  knew 
what  college  had  done  for  him, — how  it  had  opened  his  eyes, 
enlightened  his  mind,  expanded  his  soul, — and  afterward  he 
had  had  experience  as  a  teacher  in  Poughkeepsie  and  New  Or- 
leans. So  he  became,  first  and  foremost,  an  ardent  believer 
in  the  transcendent  benefits  of  education.  But  he  had  seen 
enough  of  infidelity  and  the  effects  of  an  education  without 
religion  to  realize  that  such  divorce  was  deeply  to  be  de- 
plored, and  of  the  most  injurious  consequences.  He  had  a 
religious  nature ;  his  conversion  to  the  church's  ways  was 
wholehearted  and  his  attachment  to  her  sincere  and  deep ; 
he  was  accordingly  fully  persuaded  of  the  importance  of 
Christian  education,  under  the  auspices  of  the  church. 
And  further,  he  was  born  on  a  frontier,  when  he  was 
grown  he  made  a  missionary  journey  to  the  frontier,  in 
Louisiana  he  encountered  frontier  conditions,  meeting  the 
hardy  frontiersmen  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  valleys ;  all 
his  life  long  he  followed  the  westering  frontier.  Such,  then, 
was  his  ruling  passion,  such  is  his  position  in  church,  yea, 
and  American,  history ;  he  was  the  great  Christian  educator 
of  the  frontier. 

He  left  his  school  and  parish  in  New  Orleans,  in  1811, 
and  returned  North  to  educate  his  growing  boys;  finding 
infidelity  prevalent  in  his  early  home  and  its  neighborhood, 
he  decided  to  send  them  to  the  Episcopal  academy  at 
Cheshire,  and,  to  be  near  them,  gladly  accepted  the  rector- 
ship of  Christ  Church,  Hartford.  Here  he  spent  six  pleasant 
years,  the  most  peaceful,  as  he  said,  looking  back  at  its  close, 
of  his  whole  life.     But  he  could  not  rest  content  amid  so 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       43 

much  civilization,  so,  when  his  sons'  education  was  finished, 
he  resigned  his  position,  leaving  behind  him  many  good  and 
warm  friends,  and  late  in  the  winter  of  1817  started  for  the 
wilderness,  having  no  audible  call,  no  prospect  of  support, 
but  only  the  constraining  inward  call  of  Providence  and  his 
own  nature ;  and,  the  middle  of  March,  preached  his  first 
sermon  in  Ohio. 

In  the  year  1800,  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  vast  North- 
west  Territory  was  erected  into  a  separate  territory  by  the 
name  of  Ohio.  A  majority  of  its  settlers  were,  naturally, 
hardy  young  men,  and  a  majority  of  these  were  from  New 
England ;  self-reliant,  aggressive  spirits,  hard  drinkers,  after 
the  fashion  of  that  day, — and  little  wonder,  when  we  con- 
sider the  tedium  of  life  during  the  long  winter's  cold  and 
the  chills  and  fever  of  summer-time  upon  the  frontier.  The 
territorial  governor,  Arthur  St.  Clair,  was  bitterly  unpop- 
ular ;  his  aristocratic  tendencies  excited  to  fever  heat  the 
fierce  democracy  of  Ohio.  Desire  to  be  rid  of  him  inspired 
much  of  the  agitation  for  statehood,  and  out  of  a  very  broth 
of  politics  the  new  state  emerged.  "A  people's  beginning," 
said  Aristotle,  "is  more  than  half  of  the  whole;  "  and  a 
peculiar  intensity  of  partisan  politics  henceforth  character- 
ized the  people  of  Ohio.  The  territorial  officers  had  carried 
their  slaves  thither,  and  in  the  convention  summoned  in  1802 
to  draft  a  constitution  there  was  a  majority  of  one  in  favor 
of  the  establishment  of  slavery,  as  an  inducement  to  South- 
ern immigration, — but  an  eloquent  dissuasive  turned  the 
scale.  Even  at  this  distance  of  time  it  almost  brings  one's 
heart  into  one's  mouth  to  think  of  all  that  hung  in  the  bal- 
ance at  that  unconscious  moment, — of  all  that  was  impli- 
cated in  that  vote,  in  that  single  speech ;  for  if  slavery  had 
been  domesticated  there,  state  after  state  to  westward  would 
have  followed  suit.     As  it  turned  out,  no  loss  whatever  was 


44  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

involved  in  the  defeat  of  the  measure,  for,  mild  as  was  the 
type  of  slavery  in  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  many  natives  of 
those  states  removed  to  Ohio  in  order  to  escape  it  entirely. 
About  the  year  1804,  the  new  commonwealth  was  visited  by 
the  peculiar  religious  epidemic  known  as  "the  jerks," — the 
delirium  tremens  of  emotional  religion.  In  1805,  Michigan 
was  made  a  separate  territory,  and  the  setting  off  of  Illinois 
in  1809  reduced  Indiana  to  its  present  proportions. 

A  summary  of  the  various  economic  frontiers — for  the 
term  is  by  no  means  a  simple  one — will  help  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  situation.  First,  outermost,  and  ever  reced- 
ing was  what  may  be  called  the  hunter's  frontier,  that  of  the 
Indian,  the  wild  animal,  and  the  white  hunter ;  then,  pur- 
suing the  first,  came  that  of  the  trapper  and  trader  in  fur ; 
the  third,  ever  advancing  upon  the  former  two,  might  be 
distinguished  as  the  pastoral, — that  of  the  wool-growers  and 
cattlemen ;  and  the  fourth  and  fifth  were  agricultural, 
marked  by  rotating  crops  of  Indian  corn  and  wheat  and  by 
intenser,  diversified  cultivation  respectively.  The  sixth  was 
marked  by  the  rise  of  towns;  it  was  that  of  the  manu- 
facturer, and  might  be  called  the  commercial,  unless  the 
latter  term  be  regarded  as  forming  a  fresh  distinction. 
We  may  go  a  step  further  and  describe  a  seventh  and  final 
frontier, — that  of  culture,  depending  upon  great  cities ;  of 
literature,  architecture,  music,  and  all  the  refinements  of  a 
high  and  complex  civilization.  And  in  America  it  needed  a 
marvellously  short  space  of  time  to  run  up  the  whole  gamut ; 
the  experience  of  a  border  state  in  the  first  half,  the  first 
generation  even,  of  the  nineteenth  century  foreshortened  the 
history  of  civilization.  The  successive  waves  resembled  the 
ripples  that  spread  from  a  stone  dropped  in  a  pool,  the  first 
being  the  furthest  and  swiftest ;  only  in  the  historical  in- 
stance the  undulations  of  advancing  civilization  continually 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       45 

overlapped.  This  is  illustrated  at  the  period  of  Chase's  ar- 
rival in  Ohio  :  Columbus  was  then  a  village  five  years  of 
age,  Cleveland  had  just  reached  its  majority,  Cincinnati 
boasted  a  population  of  upward  of  three  thousand  souls  and 
was  rapidly  growing, — and  yet  for  some  time  after,  bounties 
were  offered  in  the  state  for  wolves'  and  panthers'  heads. 

Only  three  months  after  his  arrival,  Chase  was  appointed 
principal  of  an  incipient  academy  at  Worthington,  a  place 
settled  by  New  Englanders,  and  accordingly  made  it  his 
home,  purchasing  a  farm  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  He 
made  a  tour  of  exploration  in  the  southern  half  of  the  state, 
organizing  parishes  at  Zanesville,  then  in  its  eighteenth  year, 
and  Columbus,  before  the  stumps  had  disappeared  from  its 
main  road,  and  visiting  Dayton,  Cincinnati,  and  Chillicothe. 
A  convention  to  organize  the  diocese  was  held  at  Columbus 
in  January,  1818;  two  clergymen  and  nine  lay  delegates 
were  present ;  they  adjourned  to  meet  at  Worthington  the 
following  June,  in  order  to  complete  their  organization  by 
the  election  of  a  bishop  ;  and  there  Philander  Chase  was 
chosen  to  be  the  first  bishop  of  Ohio, — the  first  west  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.  He  left  immediately  for  Baltimore 
and  Philadelphia,  to  consult  Bishops  Kemp  and  White. 

For  many  years  the  subject  of  a  western  bishopric  had 
been  under  consideration.  It  afforded  an  agreeable  topic 
for  speculation  and  conversation, — which  so  far  had  ended 
in  deliberation.  Now  that  Ohio  had  acted,  the  church  was 
thrown  upon  the  defensive,  did  not  know  what  to  do  in  the 
premises ;  that  action  seemed  premature,  precipitate.  So 
the  standing  committees  refused  to  move,  that  is,  withheld 
their  consent  to  the  consecration.  It  was  the  beginning  of 
troubles  for  the  bishop  elect,  against  whom  personally  ob- 
jections began  to  be  alleged.  His  episcopate  began  in  dis- 
sension.    His  whole  career  was  passed  in  review,  and  this 


46  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

naturally  consumed  much  time.  Investigations  having  been 
made  in  every  place  where  he  had  lived,  his  character  was 
triumphantly  cleared,  and  on  the  eleventh  of  February, 
1819,  he  was  consecrated  by  Bishops  White,  Hobart  and 
Kemp,  in  St.  James'  Church,  Philadelphia.  We  can  im- 
agine how  absorbingly  interesting  this  event,  so  momentous 
in  the  history  of  American  Christianity,  must  have  been  to 
Jackson  Kemper. 

On  his  return  to  his  diocese  in  the  spring,  the  new  bishop 
organized  parishes  at  Steubenville  and  Wheeling,  and  on  the 
first  Sunday  in  June  confirmed  seventy-nine  souls  at  Worth- 
ington.  He  had  the  oversight  of  three  parishes,  beside  that 
of  the  diocese, — from  which  he  received  no  salary  ;  he  had 
to  cut  wood,  make  fires,  and  feed  his  live-stock  with  his  own 
hands.  This  Episcopal  type  contrasted  picturesquely  with 
the  bewigged,  British  type,  of  which  Provoost  was  an  exam- 
ple, that  was  already  perishing  in  its  propriety.  In  182 1, 
Bishop  Chase  moved  to  Cincinnati, which  then  numbered  ten 
thousand  inhabitants,  to  assume  the  presidency  of  the  col- 
lege of  that  city  ;  and  there  he  matured  his  plans  for  a  dio- 
cesan institution  of  learning.  Because  of  the  originality  of 
his  ideas,  and  because  in  the  course  of  their  application  all 
the  arguments  and  objections  in  the  case  were  elicited,  all 
the  problems  started,  and  innumerable  suggestions  afforded 
regarding  the  relation  of  the  church  to  education,  this  pas- 
sage of  history  deserves  the  close  attention  of  every  Ameri- 
can churchman. 

Only  a  little  experience  was  enough  to  convince  Bishop 
Chase  that  the  west  must  breed  its  own  ministry,  for  a  suffi- 
cient and  satisfactory  supply  of  clergy  could  not  be  hoped 
for  from  the  east,  and  that  western  candidates  for  orders 
must  be  educated  on  the  spot,  for  in  those  days  of  poor 
travelling  facilities  and  scanty  specie  on  the  frontier  it  was 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      47 

out  of  the  question  that  young  men  should  go  east  to  the 
General  Seminary  and  there  be  supported  for  three  years. 
And  further,  preparatory  schools  were  few  and  inferior  in 
the  west ;  Chase's  design  included,  perforce,  an  academy  or 
college  ;  he  never  forgot  what  Dartmouth  had  done  for  him, 
and  was  inspired  by  the  noble  ambition  to  provide  classical 
and  literary  instruction  for  any  western  youth  who  had  zeal 
and  willingness  to  work  for  it.  He  had  himself  been 
brought  up  on  a  farm,  and  had  managed  a  farm  at  Worth- 
ington  ;  there  was  dearth  of  capital  and  specie  in  the  west ; 
he  proposed  therefore  that  the  students  should  help  support 
themselves  by  working  on  a  farm  held  in  common.  Thus, 
he  was  persuaded,  from  his  knowledge  of  the  situation,  any 
boy,  youth  or  young  man  could  obtain  school,  college  or 
seminary  education.  It  was  certainly  a  magnanimous  idea, 
— but  from  the  first  it  had  to  encounter  doubt,  discourage- 
ment, and  opposition  that  only  served  fully  to  bring  out  its 
author's  magnificent  force  of  character  and  will.  Even  in 
Ohio  the  scheme  seemed  visionary,  and  received  perfunctory 
support.  When  communicated  to  his  compeers  of  the  east 
it  won  the  approval  only  of  the  bishops  of  the  Carolinas, 
Ravenscroft  and  Bowen  ;  White  ignored,  Hobart  actively 
opposed  it.  The  latter's  interest  was  all  bound  up,  of  course, 
with  the  General  Seminary ;  he  was  all  for  centralization, 
and  opposed  diocesan  seminaries  as  tending  to  create  preju- 
dice and  division  ;  he  did  not  believe  in  the  collegiate  fea- 
ture of  Chase's  plan, — theological  and  literary  courses //z^j- 
farming  :  altogether  it  seemed  to  him  badly  mixed,  an  un- 
couth innovation,  foredoomed  to  failure.  Hopeless  of  ob- 
taining in  his  own  church  and  land  the  funds  necessary  for 
the  inception  of  his  great  work,  but  othenvise  undaunted, 
Bishop  Chase  sailed  for  England  in  the  autumn  of  1823,  to 
submit  the  whole  matter  to  the  judgment  of  English  church- 


48  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

men.  But  Bishop  Hobart  was  beforehand  with  him  ;  he  too 
had  just  arrived  in  England,  and  there,  by  every  means  in 
his  power  and  in  a  manner  that  one  cannot  regard  as 
justifiable,  he  endeavored,  in  private  and  public,  even  to 
the  extent  of  printed  circulars  and  warning  notices  in  news- 
papers, to  create  suspicion  and  prejudice  against  his  brother, 
and  to  embarrass  and  if  possible  utterly  defeat  him  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  his  plan,  which,  because  he  had  antagonized  it 
at  home,  Hobart  now  pursued  abroad  with  the  animosity  of 
a  persecutor,  intent  upon  its  destruction.  One  of  his  loud- 
est objections  had  been  the  impropriety  of  begging  money 
from  the  British ;  and  now,  consistently  enough,  one  of  his 
measures  for  diverting  the  attention  and  means  of  English 
churchmen  from  the  Ohio  school  was  to  beg  himself  for  the 
Seminary  in  New  York  and  cooperate  in  begging  for  a  pro- 
posed Episcopal  college  in  Connecticut. 

A  letter  of  introduction  from  Henry  Clay  with  which  he 
had  fortunately  come  provided  enabled  Chase  to  triumph 
over  these  machinations,  securing  him  a  hearing  from  Lord 
Gambler,  a  liberal,  influential,  and  devoted  Christian  and 
churchman,  and  through  him  from  Lord  Kenyon,  the  son 
of  the  distinguished  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench.  He  was  now  fairly  launched,  and  enjoyed  beside 
the  patronage  of  the  Countess  Dowager  of  Rosse,  who  gave 
him  two  hundred  pounds  sterling,  to  which  she  soon  after 
added  a  hundred  pounds,  which  he  resolved  to  devote  to 
the  erection  of  a  chapel,  and  soon  after  yet  another  hundred, 
for  church-building  in  Ohio.  He  visited  Sir  Thomas  Ac- 
land  in  Devon,  calling  on  the  way,  by  invitation,  upon  the 
venerable  Hannah  More.  Lady  Acland  opened  a  subscrip- 
tion which  was  ultimately  invested  in  a  printing  press  and 
types.  Everywhere  the  bishop  met  with  kindness  and  gen- 
erosity, and  his  remarkable  personality,  unprecedented  in  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       49 

old  world,  seems  deeply  to  have  interested  and  impressed  the 
church  people  of  England.  He  returned  to  America  late  in 
the  summer  of  1824,  having  achieved  decided  success;  he 
had  received  about  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  his  project, — 
equivalent  in  purchasing  power  in  Ohio  then  to  several  times 
the  amount  to-day.  He  had  all  along  determined  to  secure  a 
rural  site  and  an  extensive  domain  for  his  school,  in  order  to 
remove  the  students  from  the  temptations  of  town-life.  He 
himself  had  been  a  country  boy ;  and  he  had  a  deep-seated 
dread  of  intemperance,  then  disastrously  common.  This  as- 
pect of  his  project,  however,  awakened  strong  opposition  in  the 
convention  at  Zanesville  in  1825  ;  it  was  sneered  at  as  "a 
literary  penitentiary ' ' ;  almost  all  the  deputies  preferred  a 
suburban  site,  but  as  each  wanted  it  near  his  town  they  neu- 
tralized each  others'  efforts,  and  their  opposition  was  in- 
effectual. Some  prominent  deputies,  moreover,  objected  to 
the  academic  feature,  believing  in  a  theological  seminary 
pure  and  simple,  and  that  all  the  students  should  take  or- 
ders. Here  and  now,  accordingly,  sprouted  up  some  flour- 
ishing controversies.  There  Avas  a  certain  clearness,  defi- 
niteness  and  consistency  about  his  opponents'  view  of  a  sem- 
inary solely  that  made  the  bishop's  idea  seem  inchoate, — 
but  his  Avas  the  larger  view,  and  so  far  he  was  undoubtedly 
in  the  right.  He  understood  the  intention  of  the  English 
donors,  with  their  experience  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  to 
whom  theological  seminaries  distinctively  were  unknown  ; 
their  only  care  was  that  their  donation  should  be  devoted 
to  the  instruction  of  candidates  for  the  ministry.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  Chase  was  a  pioneer  in  his  field,  and 
had  no  models  for  his  guidance ;  his  conception  was  bound 
to  be  misunderstood  and  to  be  somewhat  confused  ;  he  had 
to  feel  his  way,  and  was  bound  to  make  some  mistakes, — 
and  a  man  who  never  makes  mistakes  never  amounts  to  any- 


50  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

thing.  But  it  was  unfortunate  that  in  his  conduct  of  the 
affair  he  produced  an  impression  of  arbitrariness  and  am- 
biguity. He  had  the  institution  incorporated  as  a  theolog- 
ical seminary  and  then  secured  an  amendment  authorizing 
its  faculty  to  act  as  the  faculty  of  a  college,  in  granting  de- 
grees. This  provision,  evidently  designed  to  shelter  the 
academic  department  from  the  attacks  of  its  enemies  and  to 
ensure  its  dependence  upon  himself,  became  the  fountain  of 
his  bitterest  woes. 

On  the  third  of  June,  1825,  occurred  the  first  meeting  of 
the  trustees  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  Ohio,  which  it 
was  arranged  to  open  on  the  bishop's  farm  at  Worthington. 
A  canvass  of  the  diocese  for  subscriptions  resulted  in  a  sad 
exposure  of  human  nature,  its  contracted,  local  policy,  its 
"  selfish  and  mercenary  spirit  "  :  none  would  take  an  inter- 
est in  the  school  unless  it  were  so  located  as  to  enhance  the 
value  of  his  property.  Lands  were  at  last  secured,  to  im- 
portant advantage,  in  Knox  county, — with  the  result  of  a 
decline  and  fall  of  the  institution  in  favor  everywhere  else  ! 
Now  began  grave  misunderstandings  between  the  bishop 
and  the  diocese :  its  convention  legislated,  he  complained, 
but  made  no  appropriations ;  and  he  contrasted  the  irre- 
sponsibility of  legislative  bodies  with  the  onerous  responsi- 
bility resting  upon  the  individual :  were  he  remiss,  what  an 
outcry  would  be  raised  ! 

In  June,  1826,  the  bishop  and  his  family  went  into  camp 
on  Gambier  hill,  and  there,  just  a  year  after,  the  corner- 
stone of  Kenyon  College  was  laid.  When  in  England  he 
had  been  much  impressed  by  the  beauty  of  the  pointed 
style  of  architecture,  and  so  now  he  engaged  the  celebrated 
architect  Bulfinch  to  furnish  designs  for  the  building,  which 
is  hence  a  quaint  and  curious  example  of  early  American 
Gothic.     The  rising  walls  appeared  so  thick  and  formidable 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      51 

that  among  the  ignorant  rustics  of  the  neighborhood  a  ru- 
mor ran  that  it  was  really  a  fort  constructed  with  British 
gold  (so  only  could  they  explain  the  liberality  of  their  late 
enemies)  and  that  the  bishcp  was  an  intriguer,  designing 
to  reduce  the  country  again  to  subjection  to  the  British 
crown  ! 


A  regulation  on  which  the  bishop  justly  prided  himself 
was  the  banishment  from  Gambler,  for  both  laborers  and 
students,  of  intoxicating  liquors,  which  he  characterized  as 
''  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  human  race." 

Meantime  the  school  was  flourishing  at  Worthington  under 
the  care  of  an  able  evangelical  clergyman  named  William 
Sparrow ;  it  numbered  over  fifty  scholars,  not  one  of  whom  was 
a  student  of  divinity, — and  this  number  rapidly  increased 
at  Gambler,  whither  it  was  removed  as  soon  as  accommo- 
dations were  ready;  in  1829,  seventy  boys  gathered  there, 
and  in  1830,  one  hundred  and  thirty, — an  increase  in  a 
single  year  of  nearly  a  hundred  per  cent.  They  worked  at 
intervals  upon  the  college  farm,  cut  wood  and  stacked  it  in 
piles  for  winter,  and  drew  water  from  the  well.  Their  board 
cost  only  a  dollar  a  week  apiece, — five  cents  a  meal !  They 
slept  on  straw  mattresses  in  bunks  or  berths  piled  one  above 
another,  and  made  their  own  beds,  "  proving  unskilful 
chambermaids;"  they  suffered  from  a  plague  of  fleas. 
Mrs.  Chase  took  charge  of  all  the  linen  of  the  establish- 
ment. Doubtless  the  bishop's  judgment  was  sound  in  re- 
spect to  all  this  manual  labor  during  the  critical,  incipient 
stage  of  his  undertaking  ;  but  such  primitive  conditions, 
while  not  without  their  compensations,  bore,  of  course,  the 
stamp  of  transiency.  And  now  the  supreme  crisis  drew 
near. 

Bishop  Chase  liked  to  have  his  own  way, — but  who 
among  Eve's  descendants  doesn't?     He  had  made  enemies 


5a  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

on  all  hands ;  there  was  hardly  a  leading  man  in  the  diocese 
who  did  not  take  issue  with  him  on  one  point  or  another. 
Rumors  regarding  misapplication  of  funds  began  to  circu- 
late,— rumors  fatally  easy  to  start,  hard  to  quiet,  and  always 
damaging.  Yet  it  is  admitted  that  owing  to  the  commin- 
gling of  the  two  ideas,  the  literary  and  the  theological,  and 
to  the  exigency  of  the  occasion,  moneys  intended  for  one 
purpose  may  have  been  applied,  temporarily  at  least,  to 
another.  Were  it  so,  that  was  not  the  only  time  or  place  at 
which  such  expedients  have  been  justified  on  the  ground  of 
imperious  necessity, — in  childish  ignorance  of  the  fact  that 
any  the  least  departure  from  the  straight  line  is  the  costliest 
of  errors,  and  the  wreck  of  confidence  and  credit.  The 
development  of  his  plans  had  involved  the  bishop  in  finan- 
cial embarrassment  and  had  created  friction  between  him 
and  his  faculty ;  and  there  were  only  too  many  hostile  by- 
standers who  were  ready  and  desirous  to  improve  against 
him  the  first  opportunity  that  offered.  It  occurred  in  the 
summer  of  1831. 

The  faculty  of  the  seminary  were  willing  to  grant  him 
the  casting  vote  in  case  of  a  tie  in  their  proceedings,  but 
this  could  never  satisfy  the  strong-willed  bishop ;  he  would 
not  submit  to  be  made  a  cipher,  as  he  phrased  it,  and  in- 
sisted upon  his  right  to  veto  any  action  of  theirs.  There- 
upon they  appealed  to  the  public  in  a  letter  composed,  or 
certainly  inspired,  by  William  Sparrow,  in  which  they 
charged  him  with  arbitrary  conduct  in  the  government  of 
the  institution.  The  matter  was  considered  in  the  dio- 
cesan convention,  which  failed  to  sustain  the  bishop,  and 
referred  everything  to  the  trustees,  who  sympathized  with 
the  faculty.  Chase  thereupon,  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  of  in- 
tense feeling,  resigned  both  presidency  and  bishopric:  "to 
preside  over  such  a  diocese,"  he  exclaimed,  "  would  be  but 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       53 

the  carrying  on  of  a  perpetual  war."  As  soon  as  he  could 
complete  his  arrangements,  he  abandoned  forever  his  once 
loved  Gambler,  and  having  bought  a  tract  of  land  in  Michi- 
gan, near  the  Indiana  line,  the  indomitable  pioneer  entered 
that  virginal  mission  field.  A  bishop,  but  only  one,  had 
been  seen  already  within  the  confines  of  the  territory  of 
Michigan,  but  only  at  Detroit.  In  the  summer  of  1827 
Bishop  Hobart  laid  there  the  cornerstone  of  the  first  Episco- 
pal church,  and  administered  the  rite  of  confirmation ;  and 
a  year  after  returned  to  consecrate  the  church. 

Bishop  Chase  was  at  times,  no  doubt,  imperious  and  hot- 
tempered.  His  own  nephew,  a  schoolboy  at  Gambler  in 
his  day,  afterward  bore  witness  that  "  he  was  determined  to 
have  everything  just  as  he  thought  it  ought  to  be;  "  a  not 
unprecedented  determination.  We  may  admit,  with  an  im- 
partial reviewer  of  the  aff'air,  that  "there  may  have  been  a 
groundwork  of  personal  ambition  underneath  his  purpose," 
while  we  are  forced  to  conclude  with  him  that  "  there  was 
hardly  so  much  tenderness  shown  to  his  temperament  as  he 
had  earned  by  his  long  suffering,  heroic  endurance,  and  per- 
sistent energy. ' '  In  casting  up  the  account,  we  must  charge 
much  of  the  bitterness  of  the  conflict  to  the  environment 
and  the  atmosphere, — to  the  partisan  politics,  the  polemical 
spirit  so  rife  at  that  time  and  in  that  commonwealth  in  par- 
ticular. From  another  point  of  view,  the  quarrel  may  be 
regarded  as  the  growing  pains  attendant  upon  the  evolution 
of  the  institution.  The  bishop's  general  idea  was  wise  and 
good  :  its  soundness  has  been  attested  by  the  vitality  of  the 
schools  at  Gambler.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  in  his 
idea  lay  latent  the  germ  of  a  church  university ;  that  beside 
preparatory  school,  academic  and  theological  departments 
as  instituted,  he  would  have  liked,  had  the  possibility  ever 
dawned  upon  his  horizon,  to  educate  Christian  physicians 


54  AN  ArOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

and  legists  also.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  the  realization 
of  his  design  he  yielded  to  the  temptation  that  always  be- 
sets the  idealist  after  a  little  experience  of  a  refractory 
world, — the  temptation  to  manoeuvre,  to  descend  from 
right  to  expediency,  as  the  thing  hoped  for  seems  to  travel 
with  the  horizon.  And  if  in  the  ideal  there  is  the  least  alloy 
of  self-love,  such  scheming  becomes  inevitable  in  the 
execution.  In  connection  with  this,  one  notes  something 
unpleasant  in  the  quality  of  the  bishop's  style;  an  unctuous 
vein  of  religious  reflection,  with  Yankee  shrewdness  gleam- 
ing through,  and  in  describing  his  transactions,  a  self- 
conscious,  declamatory  tone,  designed  to  win  his  audi- 
tors' adherence.  He  speaks  of  his  humble  dwelling,  his 
thorny  path,  his  agonizing  pangs  and  holy  triumph ;  he 
has  to  encounter  jealousy,  selfishness,  intrigue,  malignity 
and  hypocrisy :  his  opponents  are  consummately  and  wick- 
edly artful  men.  His  notion  that  a  bishop  should  or  could 
be  a  college  president  was  utterly  erroneous  ;  either  position, 
if  efficiently  filled,  would  take  up  a  man's  whole  time.  It 
was  altogether  well  that  he  left  Ohio ;  the  writer  is  far  from 
defending  the  American  uncatholic  practice  by  which  a 
bishop  is  placed  in  a  diocese  and  there  bidden  to  remain 
forever  though  nature,  experience,  and  God  Himself  would 
have  him  sometime  go  elsewhere  ;  but  Chase's  identification 
of  the  presidency  of  Kenyon  College  and  the  bishopric  of 
Ohio,  so  that  resignation  of  the  first  involved  that  also  of 
the  other,  was  enough  to  reveal,  by  its  absurdity,  the  unten- 
ability  of  his  position. 

One  is  irresistibly  drawn,  by  the  retrospect  just  concluded, 
into  some  consideration  of  the  causes  of  the  educational 
wrecks  that  strew  the  course  of  American  church  history. 
The  extremely  utilitarian  character  of  our  people  accounts 
for  many ;  practical  American  parents  can  see  the  advan- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       55 

tage  of  schooling  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen  to  eighteen 
years,  but  after  that  they  are  apt  to  think  that  a  youth 
should  be  earning  something, — and  he  is  quite  likely  to 
agree  with  them.  To  a  vast  majority,  college  education 
seems  a  mere  luxury.  This  idea  is  in  rapid  process  of  mod- 
ification, as  it  becomes  evident  more  and  more  that  a  thor- 
ough education  unlocks  in  every  direction  the  portals  of 
success,  steadily  becoming  more  difficult  of  attainment ;  but 
at  all  times  it  bore  equally  upon  all  higher  education,  so  for 
an  explanation  of  the  frequent  failure  of  church  colleges 
we  must  look  closer, — and  we  find  it  in  diocesan  control. 
The  support  of  a  single  diocese  can  never  assure  a  college 
success,  but  at  best  a  pitiably  attenuated  thread  of  existence. 
After  a  century  of  bitter  experience,  our  colleges  that  still 
live  must  gather  about  them  whole  provinces  of  dioceses,  if 
they  would  improve  the  opportunities  of  the  brighter  era 
now  opening  for  education.  And  finally,  not  the  least  im- 
portant consideration  :  these  institutions  must  guard  them- 
selves scrupulously  against  imparting  a  clericalized  educa- 
tion. There  has  always  been  and  still  is  a  highly  injurious 
suspicion  of  obscurantism,  among  hosts  of  people  who  have 
never  heard  the  term,  in  the  teaching  at  church  colleges ; 
and  it  is  only  too  well  justified.  Good  and  earnest  men  are 
peculiarly  prone  to  fall  into  an  apologetic  and  polemic  strain, 
and  science  and  philosophy,  history,  literature  and  art,  can 
all  assume  a  distorted  cast  and  astonishing  color  when  han- 
dled and  regarded  from  the  clerical  point  of  view.  This 
would-be  patrons  feel  and  eschew  ;  they  do  not  want  a 
Protestant  Episcopal  education  in  these  branches  but  one 
that  is  whole,  sound,  and  sincere.  And  God  is  best  served 
by  teaching  the  whole  truth.  Our  educators  should  con- 
scientiously avoid  anything  that  may  give  credence  to  the 
popular  belief  that  their  colleges  are  really  feeders  to  theo- 


56  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

logical  seminaries  in  disguise,  and  should  study  to  impart  an 
exact  education,  without  prejudice  and  without  reservations. 

After  his  ordination  by  Bishop  Hobart,  Upfold  accepted 
a  position  as  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  parish,  in  1821, 
and  at  the  same  time  began  to  gather  a  congregation  and 
became  the  first  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  New  York. 
He  ever  after  looked  back  to  this  period  of  his  life  with  ten- 
der recollection ;  he  was  happy  in  his  rectorship  and  pas- 
toral relations,  and  had  as  a  fellow  assistant  at  Trinity  a 
young  minister  of  extraordinary  promise  named  George 
Washington  Doane,  with  whom  he  struck  up  a  hearty  and 
life-long  friendship.  He  Avas  reluctant  to  break  with  these 
congenial  surroundings ;  but  St.  Thomas'  Church,  in  the 
same  city,  being  without  a  rector,  and  its  vestry,  after  seri- 
ous division,  having  been  able  to  agree  only  upon  him,  he 
yielded  to  the  representations  of  his  advisers  that  acceptance 
would  be  for  the  good  of  the  church,  and  removed  thither 
in  1828.  He  came  to  regret  the  change,  and,  three  years 
after,  resigned.  He  then  received  and  accepted  a  call  to 
the  rectorship  of  Trinity  Church,  Pittsburg ;  and  at  the 
same  time  received  his  doctorate  in  divinity  from  Columbia 
College. 

From  the  same  college  Whitehouse  was  graduated  in 
1 82 1,  having  given  evidence  of  exceptional  mental  endow- 
ments, and  immediately  began  the  study  of  divinity  at  the 
General  Theological  Seminary,  just  opened.  Upon  his 
graduation  thence,  in  1824,  he  was  made  a  deacon,  having 
just  reached  his  majority,  and  as  soon  thereafter  as  the  canon 
permitted,  a  priest.  He  could  now  boast  of  the  most  var- 
ied attainments  :  beside  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  He- 
brew and  the  classic  tongues,  he  was  familiar  with  both 
French  and  Italian  (to  which  he  afterward  added  some 
knowledge  of   German),  had  proved  himself  proficient  in 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      57 

exegesis  and  theology,  and  was  well  read  in  medicine  and 
law.  He  was  disposed  to  pride  himself  particularly  upon 
his  knowledge  of  the  last  mentioned  branch,  and  he  would 
undoubtedly  have  made  an  excellent  lawyer,  but  his  ac- 
quaintance with  this  subject  proved,  spiritually,  somewhat 
of  a  siren  in  after  years.  Beside  moral  qualities  of  a  high 
order,  he  possessed,  without  question,  the  most  remarkable 
intellectual  powers,  improved  by  the  most  thorough  scholar- 
ship and  varied  culture,  of  all  the  group  of  great  men  whose 
careers  we  are  tracing.  In  1827,  immediately  after  his  ad- 
vancement to  the  priesthood  by  Bishop  White,  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia, — his  own  bishop  being  absent  upon 
the  visitation  to  Detroit  before  mentioned, — he  became  rec- 
tor of  Christ  Church,  Reading  ;  and  could  report  at  the 
diocesan  convention  next  year  that  beside  his  stated  duties 
and  catechetical  instruction  he  had  delivered  a  course  of 
lectures  to  his  parishioners  upon  the  nature,  ministry,  and' 
worship  of  the  Church.  In  1829,  he  reported  that  he  ad- 
ministered the  Holy  Communion  once  every  eight  weeks, 
opening  the  church  for  prayer  on  the  Wednesday  and  Fri- 
day just  before  each  administration,  and  that  there  was  a 
gratifying  increase  in  attendance  upon  a  Bible  class  that  he 
had  started.  Bishop  Hobart  was  desirous  that  he  should 
return  to  his  diocese,  and  secured  him  a  call,  which  he  ac- 
cepted, to  the  important  parish  of  St.  Luke's,  Rochester. 
In  December  of  the  above  year  he  began  his  ministrations 
there  ;  and  within  the  next  two  years  the  roll  of  communi- 
cants was  more  than  doubled.  Here  he  signalized  his  ac- 
quaintance with  apostology  and  interest  therein, — an  inter- 
est which  he  imparted  to  his  hearers  ;  it  goes  far  to  explain 
the  spiritual  revival  just  indicated, — by  a  course  of  lectures 
on  missions  and  on  the  internal  condition  of  Turkey  in 
Asia,  with  special  reference  thereto.     His  researches  in  this 


58  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

field  plainly  exerted  a  powerful  attraction  over  him,  for  in 
the  summer  of  1833,  when  his  health  and  strength,  natur- 
ally good,  but  exhausted  by  incessant  application,  forced 
upon  his  notice  the  need  of  recuperation,  he  entered  upon 
a  long-protracted  course  of  travel  in  Europe  and  the  Orient. 

Meanwhile  the  youths  whose  births  were  noted  in  the 
middle  of  this  chapter  were  prosecuting  their  studies. 
Hawks  at  the  University  of  his  native  state.  Vail  at  Wash- 
ington— now  Trinity — College,  Hartford,  Lee  at  the  Chesh- 
ire Academy,  Talbot  at  an  academy  in  his  native  town ; 
while  we  have  to  note  the  birth,  in  1822,  of  Henry  Benja- 
min Whipple,  at  Adams,  New  York;  in  1826,  of  Robert 
Harper  Clarkson,  grandson  of  Joseph  Clarkson,  of  Lancas- 
ter, at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania;  and  in  1830,  of  William 
Edmond  Armitage,  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

Jackson  Kemper,  as  we  know,  was  of  an  affectionate,  do- 
mestic, hospitable  disposition  ;  having  tasted  for  a  time  the 
sweets  of  home  life,  he  could  not  forego  them  forever.  In 
the  autumn  of  182 1,  three  years  after  the  loss  of  his  first 
wife,  and  toward  the  close  of  his  thirty-second  year,  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Ann  Relf,  of  a  wealthy  family  of  Philadel- 
phia. Her  parents  gave  her  a  liberal  allowance,  so  that  the 
newly  wedded  pair  could  entertain  in  the  quiet  way  they 
both  enjoyed.  Mrs.  Kemper  identified  herself  heartily  with 
all  her  husband's  interests.  They  took  a  house  on  Fifth 
Street,  near  Spruce ;  and  there  their  children  were  born  : 
the  eldest,  a  daughter,  named  Elizabeth  Marius,  after  her 
father's  mother,  in  1824,  and  the  boys  Samuel  and  Lewis  in 
1827  and  1829  respectively.  An  extract  from  Kemper's 
journal,  recording  some  reflections  upon  the  discipline  of 
his  infant  daughter,  illustrates  the  general  truth  that  a  man's 
first  child  is,  often  to  its  great  grief,  the  child  of  theory,  a 
subject  for  experiment. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      59 

"  If  I  would  succeed  in  the  great  work  of  education,  I 
must  begin  by  conquering  vanity  and  indolence  in  self. 

"  Make  it  a  constant  rule  never  to  give  her  what  she  ob- 
stinately cries  for.  Encourage  humility,  but  discourage  fear 
and  timidity;  selfishness  is  almost  always  connected  with 
extreme  timidity. 

"  The  object  I  would  accomplish  by  education  is  to  train 
up  my  child  in  the  knowledge,  love,  and  application  of  those 
principles  of  conduct  which,  under  the  superintending  influ- 
ence of  divine  mercy,  will  probably  lead  to  a  considerable 
share  of  happiness  in  this  life,  but  assuredly  to  a  full  meas- 
ure of  it  in  that  which  is  to  come." 

He  loved  his  children  tenderly,  and  shrank  from  inflict- 
ing corporal  punishment, — which  in  fact,  he  practically 
never  had  to  apply,  for  they  revered  him,  and  a  word  was 
enough  to  ensure  their  obedience.  Once  he  had  to  whip 
one  of  his  boys, — and  the  child  turned  and  threw  his  arms 
around  his  father's  neck. 

All  through  these  years,  he  was  involved  in  all  the  routine 
and  carried  along  by  the  current  of  diocesan  life.  He  was 
active  and  helpful  in  ministering  to  vacant  parishes  and 
missions,  and  in  serving  upon  committees  too  numerous  to 
name.  He  was  a  trustee  of  the  General  Seminary,  and 
traveled  widely  in  behalf  of  its  endowment ;  was  one  of 
the  managers  of  the  newly  organized  Domestic  and  Foreign 
Missionary  Society ;  and  served  on  a  committee  on  the  en- 
largement of  the  hymnary.  In  regard  to  his  view  of  the 
relative  force  of  the  claims  of  foreign  and  domestic  missions : 
he  followed  Bishop  White,  who  thought  that  our  own  im- 
mense country  was  our  proper  field  ;  but  inasmuch  as  many 
good  people  would  give  to  foreign  missions,  believed  it  bet- 
ter to  enable  them  to  do  so  under  the  direction  of  the 
church,  rather  than  that  they  should  support  sectarian  mis- 


60  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

sions.  As  to  his  views  of  the  various  sects  by  which  he 
was  surrounded  :  he  could  have  no  sympathy  with  bodies 
that  had  separated  themselves  from  the  church,  as  he  held, 
without  reason.  Of  Unitarians  he  expressed  unqualified 
condemnation ;  toward  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  and  the 
Dutch  Reformed  he  had  kindlier  feelings.  In  his  relations 
with  them  all  he  was  governed  by  Bishop  White's  practice, 
as  defined  in  an  address  to  his  convention,  in  1822,  which 
recommended  unvarying  courtesy,  with  scrupulous  avoid- 
ance of  any  mixture  of  administration,  which  always  creates 
ill  feeling,  in  faith  or  polity  :  "  Our  church  affirms  episco- 
pacy to  rest  on  Scriptural  institution,"  believes  in  forms  of 
prayer,  teaches  the  doctrines  of  grace.  And  the  plea  of 
"  liberality  "  only  too  often  cloaks  a  surrender  of  some  of 
our  institutions. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  in  the  above  the  bishop  ex- 
pressed the  sentiment  of  the  convention,  which  passed  him 
a  vote  of  thanks  for  his  address. 

In  ensuing  years,  Kemper  accompanied  his  venerable 
bishop  upon  some  interesting  diocesan  missionary  tours.  In 
October,  1824,  they  started  on  what  was  designed  to  be  an 
extensive  tour,  but  an  accident  cut  it  short :  after  consecrat- 
ing a  church  at  Lewistown,  a  fall  from  his  carriage  so  shook 
the  old  bishop,  then  seventy-six  years  of  age,  that  he  had  to 
return  home.  The  following  May  they  started  again,  with 
better  success,  and  arrived  at  Pittsburg,  where  John  Henry 
Hopkins  was  beginning  his  ministry.  It  was  the  furthest 
point  to  the  westward  that  Bishop  White  had  ever  reached, 
and  he  never  got  so  far  again. 

At  this  time  the  general  Missionary  Society  reported  that 
it  was  sustaining  missions  in  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Missouri, 
and  at  Green  Bay,  off  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan. 
The  last  named  was  the  most  popular  of  the  evangelizing 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       61 

efforts  of  the  church  ;  it  was  loudly  advertised  and  heartily 
befriended  by  Bishop  Hobart,  and  was  a  favorite  object  of 
offerings  of  congregations  and  Sunday-schools,  and  of  the 
charity  of  wealthy  women. 

About  this  time  also  the  Pennsylvanian  clergy  roll  began 
rapidly  to  increase,  and  the  reports  from  the  parishes  grew 
longer.  Younger  ministers  were  now  coming  to  the  front, 
and  though  of  course  there  was  no  diminution  in  the  regard 
felt  for  him,  the  extraordinary  popularity  that  had  greeted 
Kemper's  early  ministry  and  the  unprecedented  interest  in 
his  preaching  had  for  some  time  declined.  The  report 
from  the  united  churches  for  the  year  1825  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  his  parochial  routine  :  prayers  are  said  on  Wed- 
nesdays and  Fridays  "in  imitation  of  the  stationary  days  of 
the  primitive  church,  and  agreeably  to  the  usage  of  the 
Church  of  England  ' ' ;  lectures  on  the  catechism  are  given 
during  Passion  and  the  two  preceding  weeks,  and  on  the 
doctrines  of  grace  in  Easter  week,  for  candidates  for  con- 
firmation ;  there  is  a  lecture  on  the  Bible  every  Friday  af- 
ternoon ;  and  Sunday-schools  are  attached  to  all  the  three 
churches,  the  children  being  catechised  after  service  on  Sun- 
day afternoons. 

The  vehement  controversies  over  the  election  of  an  assist- 
ant to  its  aged  bishop  which  convulsed  the  diocese  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  its  convention  in  the  years  1826  and  1827,  and 
in  fact,  sounded  the  tocsin  of  party  spirit  throughout  the 
church  at  large,  disturbed  Kemper  greatly,  and  made  him 
ready  to  depart.  The  strife  began  with  the  nomination  of 
William  Meade,  a  partisan  low-churchman  of  Virginia  ;  and 
something  in  that  name  and  the  propaganda  of  its  adherents 
made  it  distasteful  to  Kemper  for  the  remainder  of  his  days. 
He  was  teller  at  the  time  of  the  final  vote,  and  announced 
the  election  of  Henry  Ustick  Onderdonk ;  but  the  divisions 


62  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

were  not  healed.  Other  causes  conspired  with  these  to 
make  him  anxious  to  leave  the  diocese  :  the  bishop  was  now 
fast  set  in  his  ways  and  harder  to  please,  and  Kemper  real- 
ized that  the  term  of  his  greater  usefulness  in  Philadelphia 
was  over. 

He  met  Nicholas  Hamner  Cobbs,  a  clerical  deputy  from 
Virginia,  in  the  general  convention  which  sat  in  that  city 
in  1829,  and  to  which  George  Upfold  was  admitted  as  a 
visitor.  The  same  year  he  received  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
sacred  theology  froni  his  alma  mater,  but  at  the  same  time 
his  heart  was  saddened  by  the  death  of  his  well-beloved 
mother. 

Owing  to  his  extreme  diffidence  about  seeking  a  position, 
some  years  elapsed  before  it  became  known  that  he  was  will- 
ing to  make  a  change.  He  could  have  had  the  position  at 
Pittsburg  afterward  offered  to  Upfold,  but  removal  from 
Philadelphia  alone  would  not  satisfy  him  ;  he  wished  to  es- 
cape from  the  tempest-tossed  diocese,  and  its  contentious 
convention,  with  its  endless  divisions  over  words  in  resolu- 
tions and  points  of  order,  and  an  eligible  opportunity  was 
offered  after  twenty  years  of  faithful  service  in  it.  In  1831, 
Bishop  Brownell  of  Connecticut  had  him  called  to  St. 
Paul's,  Norwalk,  one  of  the  four  most  important  parishes  in 
that  diocese,  the  others  being  those  of  New  Haven,  Hart- 
ford and  Bridgeport.  Had  he  been  invited  merely  to  pay 
the  congregation  a  visit  he  would  have  declined,  so  fastidi- 
ous was  he  about  preaching  on  trial ;  as  it  was  he  went  to 
Norwalk  in  June  to  see  whether  it  promised  to  be  a  congen- 
ial field,  and  was  so  much  pleased  that  he  accepted  the  rec- 
torship. He  immediately  took  and  held  a  prominent  posi- 
tion in  the  church  life  of  Connecticut ;  he  was  appointed  to 
open  with  morning  prayer  the  first  convention  he  attended, 
and  was  placed  upon  the  standing  committee  of  the  diocese ; 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      63 

at  the  following  meeting  he  served  as  secretary,  and  was 
elected  diocesan  trustee  of  the  General  Seminary.  He 
could  report  steady  and  substantial  growth  in  his  parish  ;  a 
constant  increase  in  the  number  of  baptisms  and  confirma- 
tions, a  gain  of  fifty  per  cent,  in  the  list  of  communicants  in 
three  years  ;  and  could  also  give  a  good  account  of  several 
missions  that  he  had  inaugurated.  But  at  Norvvalk  he  had 
to  encounter  the  deepest  grief  of  his  life  in  the  death  of  his 
excellent  wife,  after  a  union  of  eleven  years  in  which  she 
had  proved  a  loving  helpmeet  to  him.  She  died  in  the  year 
1832,  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  churchyard  of  St.  Paul's, 
leaving  him  with  their  three  young  children  of  the  ages  of 
eight,  five,  and  three  years. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  record,  in  the  reports  of  the  meet- 
ings of  convention  above  mentioned,  of  the  candidacy  for 
Holy  Orders  of  Thomas  Hubbard  Vail  and  Cicero  Stephens 
Hawks.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  thus  early,  as  a 
member  of  the  standing  committee,  Kemper  met  these 
young  men,  both  of  whom  were  destined  to  build  upon 
foundations  that  he  was  to  lay. 

In  1834,  in  company  with  his  old  friend  James  Milnor, 
he  went  further  afield  than  he  had  ever  gone  before,  even 
as  far  as  to  Green  Bay,  on  a  visit  of  inspection  to  the  Indian 
mission  there,  in  what  was  then  the  remotest  west.  The 
year  1835  was  one  of  missionary  advance  all  along  the  line. 
In  March,  a  corporal's  guard  of  clergy  and  delegates  in  con- 
vention at  Peoria  chose  Philander  Chase  for  bishop  of  Illi- 
nois. He  immediately  accepted,  as  providential,  the  unex- 
pected call,  and  visited  Chicago,  "a  newly  built  town,  of  a 
few  houses,"  Peoria,  Springfield  and  Jacksonville.  The 
last  named  place  boasted  the  only  church  building  in  the 
frontier  diocese,  which  contained  four  presbyters  and  par- 
ishes (not  even  a  parish  for  the  bishop  !)  and  thirty-nine 


64  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

communicants.  At  the  general  convention  that  year  a  com- 
mittee of  bishops  was  appointed  to  consider  the  matter ;  it 
reported  that  the  case  was  certainly  unprecedented,  but  that 
the  action  of  Illinois  was  recommended  by  "especial  con- 
siderations,"— and  the  house  of  bishops  concurred  in  the 
report.  They  had  plainly  been  embarrassed  by  having  one 
of  their  number  at  large,  and,  like  the  subject  of  the  election, 
regarded  it  as  a  providential  disposition.  Meantime  Chase's 
four  years'  occupation  of  Michigan,  and  investment  in  land 
for  church  objects,  had  taken  effect  there ;  a  diocese  was 
organized,  and  in  June  Whitehouse  was  elected  bishop,  but 
declined.  There  were  at  that  time  in  Michigan  eight 
clergymen,  including  a  navy  chaplain,  ten  parishes,  two 
hundred  communicants,  and  three  church  buildings,  whose 
sites  were  Detroit,  Tecumseh,  and  Monroe.  In  1835,  too. 
Bishop  Brownell  undertook  a  visitation  of  the  southwestern 
states  that  had  far-reaching  results ;  and  the  crown  of  all 
this  activity  was  the  appointment  of  our  hero  as  missionary 
bishop  of  Indiana  and  Missouri. 

It  sounds  strange,  but  only  for  an  instant,  for  the  provi- 
dential nature  of  those  dispensations  becomes  immediately 
apparent,  to  say  that  deaths  in  his  femily  released  Kemper 
for  this  work.  The  death  of  his  mother  relieved  him,  to 
his  sorrow,  of  one  charge  upon  his  purse ;  his  father  had 
just  been  granted  a  pension  for  service  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  which  relieved  him  of  another ;  and  the  loss  of  his 
wife  broke  the  most  constraining  domestic  bond,  freeing  him 
for  the  arduous  and  unceasing  labors  of  his  large  mission 
field,  while  it  disposed  him  for  just  such  a  change.  In  this 
case  there  was  no  rival  candidate,  no  one  as  well  qualified 
for  that  field,  both  by  nature  and  experience,  as  he.  After 
a  fervent  sermon  in  which  Bishop  Doane  struck  the  keynote 
of  the  convention,  declaring  that  every  church  member  was, 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       65 

by  the  terms  of  his  baptism,  a  member  also  of  the  Mission- 
ary Society,  Kemper's  name  was  sent  by  the  house  of  bish- 
ops to  the  house  of  deputies,  and  there  approved.  The 
walls  that  had  seen  his  ordination  to  the  diaconate,  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  before,  witnessed  also  his  elevation  to  the 
highest  office  that  the  church  has  to  confer.  On  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  September,  1835,  he  was  consecrated  first  missionary 
bishop  of  the  American  church,  in  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia, 
by  the  presiding  bishop,  so  many  years  his  diocesan,  coun- 
sellor, and  friend,  assisted  by  Bishops  Channing  Moore,  Phi- 
lander Chase,  both  the  Onderdonks,  Bosworth  Smith,  and 
Doane.  It  was  the  twenty-seventh  consecration  and  the  last 
in  which  the  patriarchal  White  took  part. 


Ill 

EPISCOPATE 


m 

EPISCOPATE 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  adjournment  of  convention, 
Bishop  Chase  passed  a  pleasant  day  or  two  in  Hartford, 
rejoicing  to  find  his  old-time  parishioners  as  loyal  as  ever, — 
and  then  the  indefatigable,  indomitable  old  man  sailed  for 
England,  to  plead  the  cause  of  a  new  church  college  five  hun- 
dred miles  further  than  Kenyon  toward  the  setting  sun  !  This 
second  voyage  is  invested  with  pathos ;  when  he  went  to  plead 
for  Ohio  he  was  in  the  meridian  of  his  powers, — but  that  was 
twelve  years  before,  and  now  his  days  were  declining.  In 
the  interval,  one  by  one  among  those  who  had  befriended 
him  then  had  dropped  into  the  grave ;  he  was  especially 
saddened  by  the  loss  of  his  most  valued  friend.  Lord  Gam- 
bier,  Moreover  the  English  church  was  herself  in  straits, 
was  being  wounded  in  the  house  of  those  who  should  have 
been  her  friends;  and  yet, — a  most  encouraging  sign  of  her 
vitality,  however  discouraging  to  his  mission, — was  begin- 
ning to  realize  her  responsibility  toward  those  of  her  com- 
munion in  Ireland,  Canada,  India,  and  Australia.  Chase's 
appeal  was  wholly  unexpected  ;  his  welcome  in  England 
was  a  warning  that  would  have  disheartened  any  but  him ; 
his  friend  Lord  Bexley  told  him  not  to  look  for  success  in 
founding  a  second  college  in  the  Mississippi  valley, — pity- 
ingly salving  the  hurt  of  his  words  with  a  present  of  fifty 
pounds.  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  politely  invited 
him  to  visit  Lambeth, — but  mentioned  the  above  imperative 
claims  upon  his  purse.     He  was  cheered,  however,  by  a 

69 


70  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

cordial  letter  and  gift  of  a  hundred  pounds  from  the  faith- 
ful Kenyon ;  Lady  Rosse,  too,  was  still  living,  and  testified 
to  the  permanency  of  her  interest  by  the  munificent  gift  of 
two  hundred  and  sixty  pounds, — so  that  actually  he  did 
better  at  the  outset  than  before.  His  chief  resources  in  the 
way  of  argument  were  the  large  number  of  English  emi- 
grants in  Illinois,  and  the  danger  of  their  loss  to  the  church, 
together  with  the  phenomenal  strides  that  Roman  Catholi- 
cism was  making  in  that  region.  In  less  than  four  months 
the  subscriptions  mounted  up  to  the  equivalent  of  seven 
thousand  dollars,  and  two  months  later, — April,  1836 — he 
sailed  for  home  with  pledges  amounting  to  ten  thousand, — 
so  that  out  of  the  lion  came  sweetness  at  the  last. 

Before  his  departure,  he  had  engaged  his  newly  con- 
secrated brother  to  visit  his  diocese  for  him,  and  so,  shortly 
after  the  close  of  convention,  cheered  by  wide  and  deep  in- 
terest in  his  missionary  venture  of  faith,  witnessed  to  sub- 
stantially by  contributions  aggregating  upward  of  three 
thousand  dollars  from  churches  in  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, increased  by  generous  offerings  from  Upfold's  and 
Whitehouse's  parishes  in  Pittsburg  and  Rochester,  Kemper 
left  the  East  for  Indiana  and  Illinois.  Those  territories  had 
been  admitted  into  the  Union  as  states  in  the  years  181 6  and 
181 8  respectively.  Up  to  that  period  the  larger  portion  of 
them  still  owned  the  sway  of  primeval  nature  ;  simplest 
frontier  conditions  prevailed ;  there  was  a  mere  fringe  of 
settlement  upon  their  southern  bound,  along  the  bank  of  the 
Ohio  river;  the  bison  still  roamed  over  their  grassy  northern 
savannahs,  and  in  the  woods  wolves,  wildcat,  deer  and 
foxes  multiplied.  The  settlers  had  to  confront  the  red  man 
at  every  turn ;  even  as  late  as  1832  they  were  stricken  with 
panic  at  the  raid  of  the  Black  Hawk.  These  conflicts 
tended   to  intensify  the  vigilant,  militant  spirit,  sufficiently 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       71 

pronounced  from  the  first,  of  the  hardy  pioneers,  picked 
men  of  their  kind.  An  ardent  individuaUsm  was  the  note 
of  the  hour,  whether  in  religion  or  politics,  economic  or 
social  life.  All  sorts  of  eccentric  characters  were  largely  in 
evidence  ;  it  was  an  age  of  humors.  Every  clearing  in  the 
forest  was  an  independent  principality,  producing  pretty 
nearly  everything  that  was  consumed  upon  it.  It  was  the 
log  cabin  age  ;  in  the  midst  of  a  clearing  still  marked  by 
charred  stumps  and  gaunt  trunks  of  trees  that  had  been 
deadened  by  girdling  the  bark  around  at  the  base  would 
stand  a  rude  dwelling  of  logs  notched  at  the  ends,  thus  pro- 
ducing dove-tailed  corners,  the  crevices  in  the  walls  chinked 
with  clay,  the  chimney  outside,  at  one  end.  Within  was  a 
single  room  below,  a  loft  above,  the  furniture  of  the  room 
consisting  chiefly  of  beds,  with  splint  chairs  and  stools,  and 
a  shelf  holding  crockery,  calabashes,  a  rifle  and  powder- 
horn.  A  big  bowl,  after  doing  duty  as  a  Avash-basin,  would 
be  pressed  into  service  for  mush  or  milk,  which  with  balls  of 
corn  bread,  pork,  and  greasy  "chicken  fixin's" — fried  fowl 
— were  the  staple  fare.  Log  walls  thus  fashioned  were  poor 
protection  from  the  wind,  which  in  winter  would  search 
them,  shrunken  with  cold,  and  circulate  in  gusts  about  the 
draughty  abode,  making  the  pine  torch  or  candle  flare. 
Through  holes  in  the  roof  one  could  see  the  stars.  When 
time  came  to  retire,  modest  men  folk  would  step  outside,  to 
study  the  signs  of  the  weather  ! 

All  manner  of  bilious  attacks,  pleurisy,  fever  and  ague, 
were  the  plagues  of  those  raw  clearings  ;  malarial  fever,  it 
has  been  said,  was  then  the  Grendel  of  Indiana,  sometimes 
depopulating  whole  settlements.  Yet  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  this  was  any  more  owing  to  the  climate  and  the 
newly  opened  soil  than  to  unsanitary  habits,  such  as  laboring 
under   the   noonday   sun,    and    so   getting  overheated  and 


72  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

then  chilled.  If  there  is  one  thing  that  sentient,  hot-blooded 
creatures  must  have  it  is  warmth;  one  cannot  therefore 
think  severely  of  poor  sufferers  who  in  the  deadly  chill  of  a 
fit  of  ague  filled  themselves  with  alcoholic  stimulant.  Tea 
and  coffee  were  rare  and  expensive  luxuries  in  the  back- 
woods ;  quinine  apparently  was  not  available  ;  so  the  plague 
of  ague  was  accompanied  by  a  plague  of  whiskey.  The 
women  consumed  quantities  of  injurious  drugs,  for  quacks 
and  their  specifics  abounded. 

About  one  such  lonesome  spot  amid  the  wet  forest  the  fol- 
lowing veracious  conversation  between  a  settler  and  an  in- 
quiring stranger  is  reported  to  have  taken  place.  The 
melancholy,  monotonous,  monosyllabic  replies  tell  volumes. 
"  What's  your  place  called  ?  "  "  Moggs'."  "  What  sort  of 
land  thereabouts?"  "Bogs."  "  What's  the  climate  ?  " 
"Fogs."  "  What's  your  name ?  "  "  Scroggs."  "  What's 
your  house  built  of  ?  "  "  Logs."  "  What  do  you  have  to 
eat  ?  "  "  Hogs. "  "  Have  you  any  neighbors  ?  "  "  Frogs. ' ' 
"  Gracious  !     Haven't  you  any  comforts  ?  "     "  Grog." 

Yet  such  unromantic  toilers,  with  their  sordid  cares  and 
sufferings,  and  discouragements  often,  were  the  nameless 
pioneers  and  hewers  of  great  states  to  be.  Nor  were  their 
lives  all  winter,  but  had  an  equal  share  of  spring  and  sum- 
mer days,  and  their  long  hours  of  labor  were  followed  by 
evening  rest.  And  to  the  traveler  by  miry  roads  through 
the  murky  forest  the  forlornest  of  their  clearings  seemed  a 
paradise,  for  it  lay  open  to  the  sun  and  afforded  dry  stand- 
ing ground. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  every  farm  was  sufficient  to  itself  in 
those  days  ;  it  had  to  be, — for  the  difficulties  and  dolors  of 
transportation  were  excessive.  For  much  of  the  year  the 
roads  were  practically  impassable.  (Here  we  may  take  a 
picturesque  glimpse  into  the  prehistoric  past  of  the  West : 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      73 

the  road  in  whose  mud  the  straining  wagon  sank  to  its  axles 
had  been  the  pathway  of  the  light-footed  Indian,  and  before 
him,  the  trail  of  the  buffalo.  To  complete  the  picture  :  the 
Indian  camps  and  trading  posts  whither  these  trails  led  were 
already  becoming  the  sites  of  white  men's  villages,  destined 
to  grow  into  great  and  famous  cities.)  All  travelers  tell  of 
the  terrors  of  those  roads ;  the  cleverest  of  them  has  re- 
corded that  in  spring  "  traveling  by  land  becomes  traveling 
by  water,  or  by  both  mixed, — mud  and  water;"  and  he 
defined  forest  travel  as  "a  taste  of  'ma'shland,' — rooty  and 
snaggy  land, — of  '  corduroys '  woven  single  and  double 
twill,  and  fords  with  and  without  bottom."  Once,  inquiring 
his  way,  he  was  directed — but  with  the  warning  that  it  was 
"  the  most  powerfulest  road  !  " 

Politically  and  religiously,  these  states  were  cradled  in 
Jeffersonian  Democracy  and  Methodism, — individualistic 
both.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  tendency  of  the  fron- 
tier was  ever  away  from  the  influence  of  Europe.  Prejudice 
amounting  to  hatred — which  would  naturally  be  intense 
among  the  many  Irish  immigrants — was  felt  and  expressed 
toward  England,  and  was  extended  toward  New  England, 
partly  because  of  its  attitude  in  the  war  of  1812.  The 
frontier  has  been  termed  a  crucible,  in  which  the  most 
diverse  human  elements  were  fused  into  something  new, 
composite,  un-English, — transmuted,  shall  we  say,  into  the 
pure  gold  of  Americanism?  The  year  that  Illinois  was 
erected  into  a  territory,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  amid 
frontier  conditions  in  the  adjoining  state  of  Kentucky ;  at 
the  age  of  seven  years  he  was  taken  by  his  parents  to 
Indiana  when  it  became  a  state  ;  and  when  he  had  attained 
his  majority,  he  settled  in  Illinois. 

The  intimate  relations  of  prejudice  and  ignorance  were 
copiously  illustrated ;    prejudice  against  the   old   country, 


74  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

against  old  societies  and  their  forms,  contempt  of  the  past, 
as  of  a  bondage  it  was  well  to  escape,  excused  ignorance, — 
and  that  intensified  prejudice.  Education  and  true  religion 
had  a  hard  struggle  to  survive;  " schools  and  preachers, " 
said  a  governor  of  Illinois,  "  could  be  dispensed  with  better 
than  corn  meal."  There  was  a  prevalent  prejudice  against 
education  on  the  supposition  that  it  unfitted  boys  and  girls 
for  workers  and  housewives.  Unlearned  preachers  were 
supposed,  by  those  that  were  themselves  illiterate,  to  be 
''more  favored  than  man-made  ones," — and  people  who 
thought  thus  were  accordingly  given  over  to  the  bedlam  of 
camp-meeting  revivals,  the  one  intense  excitement  of  the 
day,  culminating  in  the  hideous,  hysterical,  "holy  laugh  "  ; 
and  to  the  ministrations  of  ranters  like  him  who,  mistaking 
the  passage  in  the  Apocalypse  about  "  a  pair  of  balances," 
read  it  "a pair  of  bellowses,^^  with  which,  he  explained,  the 
wicked  would  be  blown  to  destruction  in  the  fiery  furnace  ! 
Yet  many  of  those  circuit-riders  were  devoted  men,  who 
very  early  penetrated  to  the  remotest  settlements  and  were 
the  one  uplifting  agency  among  them.  They  received  no 
salary :  most  people  thought  that  attendance  upon  their 
preaching  was  sufficient  compensation, — and  we  cannot 
blame  them,  judging  by  the  above  quoted  discourse.  They 
were  freely  entertained,  though,  wherever  they  went, — were 
not  expected  to  pay  at  ferries  or  taverns. 

Spurious,  factitious  religious  excitement  had  its  inevitable 
consequence  in  infidelity  even  to  the  pitch  of  blasphemy. 
The  more  cultivated  scepticism  of  Jeffersonian  grain  was 
amply  defined  by  the  politician  before  quoted :  "  One 
Christian  creed  is  as  good  as  another.  The  creed  of  each 
must  be  right  to  himself  when  it  is  founded  on  the  best 
lights  in  his  power.  It  matters  not  what  particular  faith  any 
Christian  may  possess;  it  is  quite  immaterial  how  he  ar- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      75 

rives  at  it,  so  that  it  is  reached  with  honesty  and  sin- 
cerity." 

The  erection  of  these  territories  into  states  did  not  alter 
the  above  conditions,  but  gave  them  wider  scope,  while 
introducing  new  factors.  Everything  henceforth  was  on  a 
larger  scale,  even  the  epidemics  of  malarial  fever,  which 
recurred  with  desolating  effect,  appalling  prospective  immi- 
grants and  checking,  each  time,  the  inflow  of  population. 
One  cannot  make  too  emphatic  the  fact  that  these  states 
were  cradled  into  being  through  utility ;  they  were  business 
ventures,  and  ran  each  other  hard  in  the  matter  of  adver- 
tising. The  settlement  of  the  West  has  been  described  as 
an  industrial  conquest.  Freedom,  religious  or  political,  was 
not  its  motive ;  no  one  fled  or  had  cause  to  flee  from  the 
East  because  of  oppression.  The  impelling  power  was  the 
desire  to  better  one's  condition  ;  the  highest,  purest  motive 
discernible  was  that  on  the  part  of  parents  to  give  their 
children  a  better  start  in  life,  materially, — for  certainly  none 
went  West  for  the  sake  of  higher  education.  Hence  the 
utilitarianism,  and  that  of  materialistic  cast,  that  was  the 
presiding  genius  at  the  birth  of  state  after  state.  And  a 
people's  origin  is  more  than  half  of  the  whole.  "  The  in- 
tense mental  activity  and  untiring  energy  of  the  people," 
wrote  an  observer,  "in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  threaten  seri- 
ous results  to  their  social  and  moral  well-being."  And  yet 
we  must  remember  that  thousands  of  years  of  civilization 
Avere  at  their  back ;  the  inheritance  of  ages  ran  in  their 
blood ;  the  great  human  needs  were  not  obliterated  from 
their  souls  but  stifled  in  them,  and  only  waited  an  oppor- 
tunity to  reassert  themselves. 

As  in  the  case  of  Ohio,  territorial  officers  had  brought 
their  slaves  into  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  when  state  consti- 
tutions came  to  be  drafted  for  the  latter  there  was  agitation 


76  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

over  the  introduction  of  slavery,  which  became  more  excited 
after  the  admission  of  INIissouri  as  a  slave  state  in  1820. 
Three  and  four  years  after  that  date  determined  efforts  were 
made  to  naturalize  the  system  in  Illinois,  the  strongest  argu- 
ment being  the  numbers  of  Virginians  and  Kentuckians 
that  crossed  the  state  with  their  negroes,  to  settle  in  Mis- 
souri. Had  the  initiative  of  the  latter  been  followed  by 
Illinois,  it  is  believed  that  it  would  have  created  a  reflex 
wave  of  slavery  that  Indiana  could  not  have  resisted. 

The  backwoodsman  and  squatter  fought  shy  of  encroach- 
ing civilization ;  it  was  noticed  that  they  could  not  abide 
the  vicinity  of  a  school,  which  seemed  to  mark  a  descent  of 
their  children  in  the  social  scale;  they  accordingly  took 
what  they  could  get  for  their  clearings  and  followed  the  sun, 
crossing  the  Mississippi  into  Iowa,  leaving  schools  and  the 
Sabbath  behind.  Indeed,  migratory  habits  became  con- 
firmed in  them;  "every  one  in  Puddleford  expected  to 
move  somewhere  else  very  soon ;  ' '  farmers  would  shift  from 
place  to  place  half-a-dozen  times,  as  superficial  cultivation 
and  neglect  of  the  principle  of  rotation  of  crops  exhausted 
the  soil.  It  was  a  picturesque  sight  to  see  their  "  prairie 
schooners," — wagons  with  swelling  covers  of  white  cotton 
cloth  stretched  over  hoops,  and  containing  their  belongings, 
— toiling  along  a  dusty  road,  followed  by  the  cattle.  As  a 
precaution  against  the  fierce  fires  that  periodically  licked  the 
prairies,  they  would  choose  sites  for  their  cabins  upon  the 
edge  of  a  strip  of  woodland. 

To  the  plantations  that  thus  changed  hands  more  careful 
cultivation  would  be  applied ;  and  ere  long  a  frame  house 
would  rise  upon  one  and  then  another,  the  abandoned  cabin 
being  relegated  to  the  uses  of  a  summer  kitchen  and  winter 
wood  shed.  Now  at  last  parlor  was  separated  from  kitchen 
as  bedrooms  were  from  both, — and  from  each  other  !     The 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      77 

evolution  of  the  dining-room  marked  a  yet  higher  stage. 
And  now  an  occasional  pianoforte  appeared — that  symbol 
of  advanced  civilization, — together  with  horsehair  covered 
furniture,  a  rag  carpet,  stove,  timepiece,  grotesque  likeness 
in  crayons,  and  mirror  whose  only  virtue  was  that  it  never 
flattered.  "Settlements"  sprang  up,  consisting  of  "a 
smithery,  mill,  tannery,  and  above  all,  a  store";  "cities" 
were  named  before  the  roots  had  been  grubbed  up  from  their 
central  squares,  whereon  courthouse  and  tavern  faced  each 
other,  while  on  a  corner  stood  the  jail. 

The  sentiment  of  loyalty,  that  guarantee  of  good  govern- 
ment, had  not  been  developed  toward  either  state ;  nothing 
yet  had  been  done  to  elicit  it, — there  was  nothing  to  be 
proud  of.  Indiana  and  Illinois  could  be  abused  anywhere 
with  tacit  consent.  Money  was  scarce;  there  was  much 
indebtedness ;  and  financial  honor  was  at  as  low  an  ebb  as 
civic  spirit.  "Cheap  public  service,"  was  the  cry;  the 
honor  of  holding  office  was  estimated  as  sufficient  compen- 
sation ;  salaries  were  so  low  that  no  poor  man,  for  example, 
could  be  state  governor  unless  he  stole.  The  spoils  system 
was  evolved  by  frontier  politics,  and  bequeathed — a  per- 
nicious legacy — to  the  nation.  Those  politics  were  charac- 
terized by  one  who  knew  as  "  nasty,  pitiful  intrigues  and 
licentious  slanders.  Any  silly  charge,  if  uncontradicted,  de- 
feated an  election.  Defaming  and  clearing  up,  cursing  the 
administration  and  treating  to  whiskey,  constituted  an  elec- 
toral campaign.  Even  youths,  as  future  voters,  were  courted 
and  cajoled  till  they  grew  conceited,  positive,  insolent." 

The  evils  of  defective  education  and  a  lack  of  literature 
and  wholesome  pastimes  became  glaringly  apparent,  spirit- 
ually, intellectually,  and  morally,  among  the  young  men  of 
the  rising  generation.  They  mistook  dissipation,  we  are 
told,   only  too  often  for  manliness ;  they  hung  around  sa- 


78  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

loons  and  billiard-tables;  for  their  untutored  energy  and 
natural  craving  for  excitement,  denied  healthy  outlet,  drove 
them,  in  the  reactions  of  drudgery,  to  hard  drinking,  gam- 
bling, and  seduction.  Their  headstrong  passions  forced  ex- 
pression in  a  veritable  monotony  of  profanity.  Abuse  of 
stimulants  led  to  equivalent  abuse  of  the  great  narcotic  ;  con- 
sumption of  tobacco  was  inordinate  in  all  its  forms,  smoking, 
snuffing,  and  chewing  with  its  consequent  spitting  :  present 
day  opinion,  rendered  dispassionate  by  the  passage  of  time, 
is  ready  to  admit  that  Dickens'  "  Chuzzlewit  "  affords  a  not 
unfair  picture  of  some  of  those  raw  communities.  In  many 
of  them  a  spice  was  added  to  life  and  delays  of  justice  were 
expedited  by  occasional  "necktie  sociables," — lynching 
parties.  Yet  it  is  the  testimony  of  an  experienced  and 
critical  observer  that  in  the  roughest  districts  of  the  West, 
tyrannized  over  by  bullies  and  "  eye-gougers,"  a  sensible, 
self-controlled  man  could  go  about  his  business  without 
molestation. 

This  was  the  palmy  time  of  the  flat-boatmen  of  the 
Mississippi ;  the  frontier  of  commerce  was  approaching ; 
and  we  are  reminded  that  the  people  of  the  new  states  were 
beginning  to  manifest  new  and  varied  wants.  The  age  of 
homespun  and  leather  wear  was  passing  away;  manufac- 
tured goods  and  a  few  luxuries  were  beginning  to  be  brought 
down  the  Ohio  from  Pittsburg  and  up  the  Mississippi  from 
New  Orleans.  The  highest  ambition  of  the  growing  youth 
was  to  go  on  a  flatboat  to  the  latter  city. 

We  have  spoken  of  Dickens'  strictures.  Not  the  West 
only,  but  the  whole  country  as  well  Avas  then  characterized 
by  that  peculiar  sensitiveness  that  betrays  the  justice  of 
criticism.  Young  men  especially  who  had  grown  up  in 
western  settlements,  who  had  seen  nothing  of  the  world  and 
so   had    no   standard    of  comparison,   whose   uninstructed 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      79 

minds  and  consciences  were  possessed  by  the  most  uncouth 
ideas,  self-confident  and  satisfied,  prone  to  exaggerate,  bit- 
terly prejudiced  against  the  East  because  they  knew  nothing 
of  it,  not  given  to  reflection  or  self-criticism,  grew  frenzied 
under  the  criticism  of  others.  They  made  no  pretence  of 
good  manners ;  at  meals  bolted  their  meat  in  silence, — con- 
versation at  such  times  would  have  seemed  folly  to  them  and 
a  waste  of  precious  minutes ;  the  amenities  of  life,  such  as 
"  please"  and  "thank  you,"  struck  them  as  suited  to  effete 
monarchical  societies,  but  as  incongruous  with  free-born,  in- 
dependent Americanism,  Force  of  character  and  self-reliance 
are  admirable  qualities,  certainly, — but  mark  the  nemesis  of 
this  pugnacious,  iconoclastic  spirit,  this  illusory  self-suffi- 
ciency, contempt  of  the  past  and  of  old  authority  :  it  is 
simple  ignorance  and  vulgarity.  Rejecting  what  is  good  in 
the  old  one  is  given  over  to  what  is  coarse  and  bad  in  the 
new ;  his  pretended  freedom  is  actual  bondage  to  the  baser 
elements  of  society  and  his  own  nature,  is  resoluble  into  a 
plea  for  license  and  anarchy ;  his  contempt  of  the  great 
names  of  old  delivers  him  up,  hoodwinked,  to  undiscerning 
idolatry  of  contemporary  opinion  and  reputations.  This 
attitude  of  mind  is  responsible,  by  way  of  disgusted  reac- 
tion, for  the  Anglomania  of  an  ensuing  generation ;  and 
both  betray  unstable  equilibrium. 

The  most  effectual  efforts  to  control  the  frontier  that  were 
put  forth  by  the  East  were  by  sending  thither  mission- 
aries and  schoolmasters.  Baptist  exhorters  had  followed 
close  upon  Methodist,  and  now  came  Campbellites,  or  Dis- 
ciples, Cumberland  Presbyterians,  and  representatives  of 
innumerable  curious  sects  beside,  such  as  the  Soul-sleepers, 
whose  distinguishing  tenet  was  that  disembodied  souls  are 
in  a  somnolent  state  between  death  and  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. 


80  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

These  missionaries  received  meagre  stipends  from  home 
and  nothing  in  the  field,  and  hence  had  to  work  with  their 
hands,  chop  wood,  and  plough  for  their  living.  So  it  came 
about  that  they  were  often  denounced  in  the  East  as  "  given 
to  secular  employments"  !  One  of  them,  a  Presbyterian, 
proposed  a  new  society :  "  The-make-congregations-/<y- 
what-they-voluntarily-/r^;;/w-society,"- — for  "  most  clergy- 
men do  perform  all  they  ever  promise  and  often  a  very  great 
deal  more." 

One  of  these  worthy  men  who  at  his  first  coming  was  dis- 
couraged by  the  survey,  for  the  young  people  in  particular 
seemed  to  have  lapsed  into  heathenism,  made  the  cheering 
discovery  after  a  little  effort  that  though  religious  feeling, 
through  disuse,  had  become  dormant,  it  was  not  extinct,  and 
that  only  regular  and  faithful  work  was  required  to  cause 
the  nobler  qualities  again  to  assume  control.  There  is  in- 
teresting evidence  of  the  fact  that  soon  became  notorious 
to  all  observers,  that  churchless  villages  were  backward, 
rude,  vicious,  and  failed  to  attract  settlers ;  hence  it  became 
good  business  to  solicit  and  advertise  ecclesiastical  privileges. 
But  with  the  multitude  of  sects  mutual  antagonism  flamed 
more  fiercely.  The  five  hundred  citizens  of  the  capital  of 
Indiana  were  divided  among  ten  religious  sects :  "Almost 
every  householder  had  a  '  meeting '  of  his  own  and  in  his 
own  dwelling."  A  schismatical,  self-righteous  spirit  was 
abroad,  that  "  magnified  differences,  hunted  more  diligently 
than  intelligently  for  scriptural  excuses  for  division,  and 
perverted  texts  to  support  creeds  and  uncharitable  criticisms 
of  varying  creeds."  Such  was  the  common  burden  of  ser- 
mons ;  there  was  no  exchange  of  pulpits  in  those  days  ! 
"  Most  that  was  done  at  many  of  our  meetings  was  to  revile 
others  and  glorify  ourselves.  Extra  saints  used  to  resort  for 
worship  to  the  top  of  the  courthouse  steeple.     Men  thought 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      81 

there  was  one  church  in  the  world  and  that  their  own,  and 
wondered  what  judgment  would  fall  on  other  denomina- 
tions. They  were  possessed  by  a  disposition  to  dogmatize, 
to  settle  not  only  their  own  faith  but  also  their  neighbors', 
and  to  stand  resolutely  and  dispute  fiercely  for  the  slightest 
shade  of  difference  of  religious  opinion."  And  finally,  that 
opinion  was  badly  mixed  up  with  politics,  and  confounded 
with  noise  :  "a  quiet  religion  in  Puddleford  was  no  religion 
at  all!" 

After  the  suppression  of  the  Black  Hawk  insurrection  in 
1832,  immigration  of  better  quality  from  the  South,  New 
England  and  Great  Britain  began  to  pour  in,  bearing  with  it 
property,  education,  and  some  sound  religion.  Now  the 
northern  tiers  of  counties  began  to  be  settled  ;  neat  white 
cottages,  of  New  England  style,  with  pine  trees  flanking  the 
approach  to  the  door,  began  to  appear;  towns  sprang  up 
and  soon  numbered  their  thousands,  and  boasted  many 
stores,  among  them  a  bookstore,  hotels,  newspapers,  schools 
and  churches.  Now  appeared  Roman  Catholics,  Episcopa- 
lians, Presbyterians,  Congregationalists,  Universalists,  Uni- 
tarians, "and  a  few  Nothingarians."  Trained  lawyers 
replaced  the  old-time  pettifoggers,  and  physicians  the  quacks. 
Lyceum  courses  of  lectures,  universities,  and  charitable  in- 
stitutions drew  within  the  horizon  of  the  possible ;  and  we 
hear  mention  of  musical  societies  and  another  sign  of  the 
approaching  frontier  of  culture,  albeit  untimely  :  a  wander- 
ing artist,  a  disconsolate  swallow  of  premature  culture,  dies 
in  one  of  the  settlements.  Temperance  societies  are  organ- 
ized, to  suppress  intoxication  at  elections,  primarily ;  and, 
best  of  all,  progress  in  pure  religion  is  recognized  as  "  an 
index  to  the  dignity  and  elevation  of  society,  of  states,  of 
human  life."  Interest  in  it  deepens,  young  men  begin  to 
seek  the  ministry ;  educated  clergymen  are  called  to  urban 


82  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

parishes,  and  institute  Sunday-schools  ;  written  sermons  and 
chaste  eloquence  replace  the  spontaneous  ranting  of  former 
time,  and  sacred  music  and  song  the  discordant  noise. 

The  first  Episcopal  minister  of  whom  we  hear  in  these 
quarters  was  an  almost  mythical  being  named  Henry  Shaw, 
who,  in  1823,  gathered  a  congregation  at  Vincennes;  but 
who  he  was,  whence  he  came  and  whence  he  derived  his  or- 
ders, no  one  knows.  We  no  sooner  hear  of  him  than  we 
hear  that  he  "  quit  preaching  and  was  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture "  ;  and  from  later  ambiguous  allusions  we  infer  that  his 
character  was  not  of  the  best, — that,  in  a  word,  he  was  a 
clerical  adventurer.  What  finally  became  of  him  is  also 
unknown  ;  out  of  the  dark  into  the  dark  he  goes. 

The  same  year  an  emissary  of  the  infant  Domestic  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the  church,  sent  out  to  reconnoitre  in  both 
states,  organized  a  hopeful  parish  at  Albion,  Illinois,  whose 
history  is  conclusive  as  to  the  practicability  of  an  early  in- 
troduction of  the  church  into  this  region.  The  nucleus  of 
the  parish  was  composed,  without  doubt,  of  a  cluster  of 
English  immigrants ;  much  zeal  was  manifested  at  the  out- 
set, and  a  rector  was  called  from  the  East.  Upon  his  decli- 
nation, the  congregation  entreated  the  Missionary  Society  for 
a  supply ;  and  when  that  appeal  also  proved  unavailing,  it 
dissolved  away. 

Such  experiences  as  these  should  quiet  all  plaints  about 
the  irreparable  loss  the  church  is  supposed  to  have  incurred 
through  her  comparatively  late  entrance  into  this  field  ;  the 
time  was  not  ripe.  Both  men  and  money  were  needed  for 
the  work,  and  neither  was  at  hand.  The  General  Seminary 
only  graduated  its  first  class  that  year,  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary of  Virginia  was  located  at  Alexandria,  and  Bishop 
Chase  went  abroad  to  solicit  funds  for  a  western  seminary. 
Even  for  the  East  the  supply  of  clergy  was  sadly  inade- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      83 

quate.  Funds  were  also  lacking;  the  Missionary  Society 
was  in  its  inception,  and  after  a  moment  of  promise  had  to 
struggle  for  life  against  a  decline  of  interest.  Undoubtedly 
it  should  have  sent  a  bishop  instead  of  a  priest  as  its  first 
missionary  to  the  West,  but  in  1823  such  a  step  would  have 
seemed  utterly  impracticable.  No  society  can  be  imagined 
where  Episcopal  services  were  more  needed  than  in  In- 
diana and  Illinois  at  that  time,  and  on  the  other  hand  there 
was  none  where  they  were  less  wanted.  A  bishop  would 
have  had  terribly  hard  work  and  could  have  accomplished 
scarcely  anything  for  ten  years ;  still,  he  should  have  been 
sent.  Not  until  after  1832  was  the  soil  prepared  for  the 
church's  seed. 

Leaving  his  young  children  in  charge  of  their  relatives  in 
Philadelphia,  and  accompanied  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Roose- 
velt Johnson,  Bishop  Kemper  reached  Indiana  in  November, 
1835.  A  word  is  necessary  concerning  his  companion,  who 
was  destined  to  exert  a  moulding  influence  upon  the  new 
diocese.  He  was  the  son  of  a  distinguished  minister,  a 
scholar  and  eloquent  preacher,  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  com- 
munion, whose  name,  originally  Jansen,  had  by  simple 
change  of  spelling  been  conformed  to  its  English  homologue. 
After  graduating  at  Columbia  College,  the  younger  Johnson 
received  Episcopal  ordination,  and  now,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
three  years,  attended  Bishop  Kemper  upon  his  first  mission- 
ary journey. 

They  discovered  that  in  the  whole  state  of  Indiana  there 
was  one  lone  missionary  of  their  communion,  located  at  the 
capital,  but  not  one  church.  New  Albany  was  the  largest 
town,  numbering  upward  of  three  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
this  and  Evansville,  where  there  were  seven  hundred  souls 
and  no  minister  of  any  kind,  seemed  to  be  highly  promising 
stations.     Having  traversed  the  southern  part  of  the  state, 


84  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

the  bishop  sought  to  reach  St.  Louis  by  river,  and  touched 
at  Paducah,  a  growing  town  of  a  thousand  inhabitants,  that 
could  boast  a  theatre,  but  not  a  single  place  of  public  wor- 
ship. Something  untoward  must  have  happened  to  the 
travelers,  for  they  now  had  to  take  an  open  wagon,  wherein 
their  trunks  served  them  for  seats,  and  drive  across  the 
southern  end  of  Illinois.  •  After  toiling  through  a  swamp 
fitly  called  Purgatory,  they  arrived  at  St.  Louis  in  the  mid- 
dle of  December.  Here  there  was  an  organized  parish  and 
church  building,  the  only  one  in  the  jurisdiction  of  Missouri, 
in  which  there  was  not  a  single  clergyman, — an  exact  con- 
verse of  the  case  in  Indiana. 

The  arrival  of  Americans,  after  the  Louisiana  purchase, 
in  the  old  French  military  and  trading  post  of  St.  Louis, 
was  followed  by  municipal  incorporation,  the  organization  of 
the  fur  trade,  a  post  office,  newspaper,  school,  and  bank; 
and  the  appearance  of  the  first  river  steamboat,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1817,  marked  a  fresh  era  in  the  life  of  the  place. 
The  year  after,  the  foundation  of  a  Roman  Catholic  cathe- 
dral was  laid,  and  in  18 19,  the  year  of  Chase's  consecration, 
the  Episcopal  parish  of  Christ  Church  was  organized. 
After  a  period  of  suspended  animation,  a  church  building 
was  completed  in  1830,  but  even  after  that  there  was  a 
vacancy  until  Bishop  Kemper  assumed  the  rectorship  and 
secured  the  services  of  the  Reverend  Peter  Minard  as  assist- 
ant minister.  Apart  from  the  metropolis,  there  was  hardly 
a  town  in  Missouri  worthy  of  the  title,  but  only  straggling 
villages  and  a  scattered  and  ever  moving  population  of  fron- 
tiersmen, stock  raisers  and  small  farmers.  Civilization  here 
did  not  differ  materially,  save  in  the  points  of  slavery  and 
the  frequency  of  duels,  from  that  in  the  states  immediately 
to  the  eastward.  There  was  little  capital  or  credit,  and  so, 
in  the  midst  of  undeveloped  and  almost  inexhaustible  nat- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      85 

ural  wealth,  the  people  were  generally  poor.  The  religious 
among  them  were  possessed  by  bitter  sectarian  prejudices  ; 
Roman  Catholics  were  numerous,  and  had  had  a  resident 
bishop  since  1826;  irreligion  was  of  mutinous  and  blasphe- 
mous rather  than  of  intellectual,  sceptical  cast.  Thomas 
Hart  Benton,  the  representative  statesman  of  the  frontier, 
held  the  vote  of  the  state  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Bishop 
Kemper  met  him,  but  they  cannot  have  been  congenial,  for 
Benton,  though  brought  up  in  the  church,  had  connected 
himself  with  the  Methodists,  and  the  bishop's  prejudice 
against  Jefferson  had  descended  to  Andrew  Jackson  and 
men  of  his  party. 

Still  attended  by  Mr.  Johnson,  the  bishop  spent  the  win- 
ter of  1836  in  Illinois,  fulfilling  his  promise  to  Chase.  Early 
in  January  he  consecrated  the  church  at  Jacksonville,  and 
in  February  organized  the  parish  at  Alton.  The  cold 
proved  intense  and  travel  difficult.  In  the  course  of  this 
visitation,  apparently,  he  recrossed  the  Mississippi  and  stood 
for  the  first  time  on  the  soil  of  Iowa ;  for  in  consequence  of 
his  representations  Dubuque  was  made  a  station  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Society. 

Iowa  has  been  called  "  a  great  meadow  between  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Missouri  rivers  "  ;  it  contains  a  greater  propor- 
tion of  rich,  arable  land  than  any  other  state  in  the  union. 
Its  name  is  said  to  signify  "beautiful  land,"  and  the  im- 
pression made  upon  the  favored  ones  who  first  looked  out 
over  its  undulating  prairies,  with  their  waving  grass  and 
flowers,  was  not  that  of  an  aboriginal  wilderness,  but  of  "  a 
lately  cultivated  country,  suddenly  deserted  by  its  inhabit- 
ants." As  a  territory  it  had  been  attached  to  Missouri  until 
that  became  a  state ;  thenceforth  for  many  years  its  condi- 
tion has  been  aptly  defined  as  political  orphanage,  until  in 
1834  it  was  appended  to  Wisconsin,  which  was  itself  an  ap- 


86  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

pendage  of  Michigan  territory.  Dubuque  had  just  been 
laid  out,  and,  the  year  of  Kemper's  visit,  the  site  of  Daven- 
port was  surveyed,  and  its  streets  were  planned.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  territory  was  estimated  at  upward  of  ten 
thousand  souls. 

Kemper  now  heard  of  "  Milwalky  in  Ouisconsin  "  as  a 
hopeful  site  for  a  mission  station,  and  soon  after,  in  view  of 
the  erection  of  Michigan  into  a  state  and  consequent  separ- 
ation therefrom  of  Wisconsin  territory,  the  few  church  peo- 
ple in  the  latter,  at  Green  Bay,  conceiving  that  they  were 
thereby  separated  from  Michigan  diocese,  applied  to  him  for 
Episcopal  services.     Much  feeling  ^vas  excited  by  this  action. 

He  was  then  on  his  way  to  the  East,  where  one  of  his  first 
acts  was  to  join  in  the  consecration — the  first  in  which  he 
took  part, — of  Samuel  Allen  McCoskry,  of  Pennsylvania, 
as  first  bishop  of  Michigan.  Kemper  could  testify  that  in 
the  three  states  he  had  just  inspected  he  could  easily  find 
places  for  a  hundred  missionaries,  and  he  put  so  strongly 
the  case  for  church  building  in  the  West  that  a  society  was 
formed  in  New  York  to  promote  it.  His  aim  in  his  eastern 
tour  was  threefold :  to  plead  in  the  seminaries  for  men  to 
volunteer  as  missionaries,  and,  everywhere  else,  for  means 
to  sustain  them,  and  also  to  start  a  church  college  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  It  needed  only  six  months'  experience  to 
convince  him  of  the  wisdom  of  Bishop  Chase's  ideal.  For 
some  weeks  he  had  difficulty  in  getting  a  hearing  for  his 
college  plan,  and  was  somewhat  chagrined,  when  on  a  sud- 
den the  tide  turned  and  within  twenty  days  he  secured  for 
it  subscriptions  amounting  to  as  many  thousand  dollars,  and 
thus  ensured  its  foundation.  After  this,  wherever  he  went 
the  keenest  interest  was  aroused  in  his  work, — an  interest 
that  was  attested  then  and  in  after  years  by  gifts  to  the  cause 
from  eastern  clergymen  and  laymen,  divinity  students,  ladies 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       87 

old  and  young,  (widows  and  orphans,  one  may  truly  say), 
Sunday-school  children,  parochial  missionary  societies  and 
entire  congregations.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that,  as 
the  western  states  were  peopled  from  the  East  and  their  de- 
velopment depended  upon  eastern  capital,  so  their  dioceses 
owed  their  being  to  the  grace  of  God  acting  upon  eastern 
hearts,  and  producing  the  fruit  of  self-denial. 

November  found  the  bishop  back  in  St.  Louis,  anxiously 
expecting  the  promised  arrival  of  two  clergymen,  and  his 
disappointment  was  keen  when  he  learned  that  they  had  ac- 
cepted positions  elsewhere.  Meantime  there  was  borne  to 
his  ears  on  every  wind  the  Macedonian  cry,  "  Come  and 
help  us."  The  prospect  of  a  gift  of  land  and  subscriptions 
for  a  college  at  Lafayette,  Indiana,  where  his  friend  Johnson 
had  just  organized  St.  John's  parish,  drew  him  thither  in 
haste;  and  during  his  absence,  early  in  January,  1837,  an 
act  incorporating  Kemper  College  was  passed  by  the  Mis- 
souri legislature.  The  bishop  had  chosen  the  title,  "  Mis- 
souri College,"  but  exception  was  taken  to  it,  and  at  the 
last  moment  his  name,  as  that  of  the  principal  trustee,  was 
substituted,  without  his  knowledge. 

The  year  then  opening  was  a  troublous  one,  in  both 
church  and  state.  Kemper  was  engaged  with  his  brother 
bishops,  Mcllvaine,  McCoskry,  and  Otey,  and  for  some 
time  vainly,  in  endeavoring  to  restore  peace  to  the  agitated 
diocese  of  Kentucky,  whose  bishop  had  been  accused  of 
falsehood.  They  brought  in  a  verdict  that  excited  loud 
cachinnation  :  "  Guilty,  without  criminaUty."  Their  mean- 
ing was  perfectly  perspicuous  :  Bishop  Smith  had  made  a 
misstatement,  but  without  culpable  motive. 

The  financial  panic  that  swept  the  land  like  a  cyclone  in 
1837  wrought  havoc  with  the  credit  of  these  states.  Their 
currency  had  been  inflated  with  worthless  paper,  and  wild- 


88  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

cat  banking  brought  in  its  revenges.  No  moral  principle 
had  been  recognized  in  the  management  of  many  banks  ;  it 
is  said  that  in  Michigan  there  was  a  mutual  understanding 
among  them,  and  that  the  same  silver  and  gold  were  dis- 
patched from  one  point  to  another  ahead  of  the  inspectors, 
and  exhibited  to  them  at  bank  after  bank.  The  demoraliz- 
ing, disintegrating  folly  was  exposed  of  making  haste  to  be 
rich  ;  of  undertaking  internal  improvements  at  other  people's 
expense,  and  thinking  to  pay  for  them  with  riches  manufac- 
tured by  the  printing-press ;  of  imagining  that  something 
could  be  made  out  of  nothing,  or  out  of  land  itself  without 
steadfast  human  labor.  The  crisis  was  so  severely  felt  in 
Chicago,  which  in  only  a  couple  of  years  had  sprung  from 
a  village  into  a  town,  that  people  were  forced  to  raise  vege- 
tables in  their  house  lots,  to  keep  from  starving.  Ere  long, 
payment  of  interest  ceased  upon  the  state  debts  of  Indiana 
and  Illinois.  The  intoxication  of  speculation  was  followed 
by  weary  years  of  depression ;  and  this  grievously  affected 
the  missionary  cause. 

1837  also  marked  a  crisis  in  the  anti-slavery  campaign. 
Elijah  Lovejoy,  a  Whig,  Presbyterian  minister,  and  editor 
of  a  denominational  journal  that  opposed  slavery,  came  to 
a  violent  end  at  Alton.  A  career  like  his  served  to  confirm 
Kemper  in  his  abhorrence  of  the  mixture  of  politics  with  re- 
ligion; and  he  always  thought  that  the  methods  of  the 
abolitionists  defeated  their  chosen  end,  and  tended  to  per- 
petuate slavery. 

His  unconquerable  optimism  in  the  face  of  financial  dis- 
aster is  inspiring.  He  still  hoped  to  prove  "  that  if  Indiana 
was  ever  lost  to  the  church,  she  is  regained."  He  had  the 
satisfaction  of  laying  the  corner  stone  of  a  church  at  Craw- 
fordsville,  and  of  organizing  Christ  Church  parish  at  Indi- 
anapolis.    He  was  kindly  received  at  New  Harmony,  and 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      89 

made  the  acquaintance  of  Robert  Dale  Owen.  He  had  no 
sympathy  with  Owen's  communistic  scheme,  and  had  a 
horror  of  infidelity ;  but  personally  the  intercourse  between 
them  was  courteous  and  friendly,  and  the  bishop  enjoyed 
examining  the  philosopher's  fine  library  and  collections 
illustrative  of  natural  history. 

In  the  late  autumn  he  was  speeding  across  Missouri  to 
Fort  Leavenworth,  the  most  important  post  on  the  frontier. 
Colonel  Stephen  Kearny,  the  commandant,  had  begged 
him  to  secure  a  chaplain  for  it.  The  bishop's  account  of 
the  trip  is  so  vivid,  and  expressive  of  his  buoyant  spirit, 
that  it  is  well  to  quote  from  it.  "I  have  now  experienced 
a  little  of  western  adventure,  and  really  entered  into  it  with 
much  more  spirit  and  enjoyment  than  I  could  have  imagined. 
.  .  .  Shall  I  tell  you  how  we  were  benighted  and  how 
we  lost  our  way,  of  the  deep  creeks  we  forded  and  the  bad 
bridges  we  crossed, — how  we  were  drenched  to  the  skin, 
and  how  we  were  wading  for  half-an-hour  in  a  slough,  and 
the  accidents  which  arose  from  the  stumbling  of  our  horses  ? 
But  these  events  were  matters  of  course.  We  had  daily 
cause  for  thankfulness  and  praise.  .  .  .  What  a  proof 
of  the  sluggishness  of  our  movements  is  the  fact  that,  so  far 
as  I  can  learn,  I  am  the  first  clergyman  of  our  Church  who 
has  preached  at  Columbia,  Boonville,  Fayette,  Richmond, 
Lexington,  Independence  and  Fort  Leavenworth, — in  a 
word,  I  have  been  the  pioneer  from  St.  Charles  up  the  Mis- 
souri !  "  And  so  he  trod  for  the  first  time  that  portion  of 
the  vast  tract  then  vaguely  known  as  the  Indian  Territory 
which  in  after  days  was  to  take  its  name  from  the  tribe  of 
Kansas  Indians. 

The  earliest  record  of  that  territory  is  of  one  of  those 
violent  summer  hailstorms  that  still  distress  the  farmer.  On 
a  sultry  and  dazzling  afternoon  in  June,  three  centuries  be- 


90  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

fore  Kemper's  visit,  a  Spaniard  named  Coronado  was  cross- 
ing its  treeless  plains,  when  of  a  sudden  the  sky  was  over- 
cast and  he  and  his  troop  were  pelted  with  hailstones  as  big 
as  oranges.  Its  only  development  up  to  Kemper's  day  was 
owing  to  its  being  threaded  by  the  Santa  F€  trail  for  traders 
between  Missouri  and  Mexico.  What  he  saw  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  mission  work  among  the  Indians  there  interested 
the  bishop  profoundly. 

On  his  return  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  hoped  to  rest  for 
some  months,  doing  pastoral  work,  looking  after  his  college, 
writing  letters  and  reports,  he  found  a  letter  awaiting  him 
from  Bishop  Otey,  entreating  his  company  upon  a  tour  in 
the  southwest.  The  two  bishops  had  been  closely  drawn  to 
each  other  at  the  time  of  the  Smith  trial,  and  ever  after 
were  faithful  friends.  To  Kemper  the  invitation  came  as  a 
constraining  call,  and  accordingly,  in  January,  1838,  he 
dropped  down  the  great  river  to  Memphis,  where  news 
reached  him  that  Otey  was  prostrated  by  an  attack  of  fever, 
and  begged  him  to  make  the  visitation  in  his  stead.  "If 
possible,  I  shall  gratify  him,"  Kemper  wrote  home,  "for  I 
am  much  attached  to  him,  and  I  belong  entirely  to  the 
Church."  So  began  a  magnificent  tour  which,  taken  in 
connection  with  his  other  activities,  affords  the  most  im- 
pressive spectacle  of  the  expansion  of  the  church  through- 
out the  land  at  the  opening  of  the  second  generation  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  His  route  lay  through  Natchez,  New 
Orleans,  Mobile,  Pensacola,  Tallahassee,  Macon,  Columbus 
(Georgia),  Montgomery,  Greensboro',  Tuscaloosa,  and  Co- 
lumbus (Mississippi),  and  terminated  at  Mobile  and  New 
Orleans,  whither  he  returned  in  May.  He  could  report  that 
in  about  four  months  he  had  visited  nearly  all  the  parishes 
in  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Florida, 
confirming  in   nearly  all;    that   he  had  consecrated  eight 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      91 

churches  and  advanced  two  deacons  to  the  priesthood ;  and 
that  he  had  become  a  hving  witness  to  the  church  at  large 
of  the  wants,  claims,  and  prospects  of  the  southwest.  He 
estimated  that  at  least  fifty  missionaries  were  needed  there 
immediately,  and  put  the  pointed  question :  "Is  climate  ever 
to  be  taken  into  consideration  by  those  who  have  solemnly 
bound  themselves  at  the  Altar  of  God  ?  ' ' 

This  superb  tour  was  the  prelude  to  the  consecration  of 
Leonidas  Polk. 

Among  the  testimonies  to  the  genial  impression  produced 
by  Kemper's  personality  we  select  two  from  Mississippi, 
from  the  missionaries  at  Woodville  and  Columbus.  "I 
cannot  doubt  that  the  labors  of  this  amiable  and  excellent 
prelate  will  greatly  advance  the  interests  of  the  Church  in 
this  destitute  region.  His  indefatigable  zeal  and  amiable 
manners  have  secured  him  friends  in  all  who  have  known 
him."  "He  was  the  first  Bishop  that  had  ever  been  in 
this  region,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  he  made  a  good  and 
wholesome  impression  for  the  Church.  Our  people  were 
very  much  pleased  with  him  in  the  pulpit,  and  delighted 
with  him  in  the  private  circle.  We  only  regret  that  there  is 
but  little  hope  of  our  seeing  him  again." 

No  sooner  had  he  returned  north  than  he  started  upon  a 
visitation  of  Indiana,  and  presided  over  its  diocesan  con- 
vention. At  Vincennes  he  walked  and  talked  with  General 
William  Henry  Harrison,  who  owned  property  in  the  town, 
to  such  good  effect  that  he  obtained  from  him  a  gift  of  a 
fine  lot  of  land  for  a  church.  He  preached  at  New  Har- 
mony in  a  room  that  Owen  had  helped  prepare  for  service. 

In  the  growing  town  of  Milwaukie  (as  it  was  then  spelled) 
a  parish  had  just  been  organized  by  the  name  of  St.  Paul. 
An  experienced  missionary  named  Richard  Cadle,  who  had 
formerly  been  employed  by  the  board  of  missions  in  Michi- 


92  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

gan,  had  been  transferred  to  Wisconsin,  where  he  was  busily 
gathering  congregations.  That  territory  and  Iowa  were  now 
formally  placed  under  Kemper's  jurisdiction,  and  in  July, 
for  the  first  time  as  bishop,  he  entered  Wisconsin,  with 
which  his  relations  were  destined  to  become  the  most  inti- 
mate of  all. 

The  imaginative  charm  of  this  wonderful  career  lies  in 
the  illimitable  perspectives  opened  by  it  into  space,  time, 
and  eternity. 

Until  within  only  four  years  of  his  visit  traffic  with  the 
Indians  had  been  the  one  interest  of  the  territory,  and  the 
fur-trade  had  opened  up  and  marked  out  the  way  for  all  its 
future  development.  Green  Bay,  Milwaukee,  Fond-du-Lac, 
Oshkosh,  Sheboygan,  Madison  and  many  other  towns  stand 
upon  the  sites  of  Indian  villages  and  trading-posts,  and 
many  a  highway  was  once  an  Indian  trail.  The  water  ways 
had  early  been  well  explored  by  French  voyagers  and  Jesuit 
priests.  The  Black  Hawk  war  first  advertised  the  country, 
and  in  the  summers  immediately  ensuing  waves  of  immigra- 
tion, of  good  quality,  native  American  and  protestant,  broke 
upon  its  eastern  coast.  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters put  in  an  appearance,  schools  were  opened  and  news- 
papers started  at  Green  Bay  and  Milwaukee,  and  mail  was 
carried  up  the  coast  once  a  week.  Kaleidoscopic  changes 
marked  the  infancy  of  the  territory ;  it  participated  in  the 
speculative  excitement  of  the  year  1836,  which  reached  its 
height  in  Milwaukee  in  a  building  mania;  after  the  col- 
lapse, next  year,  a  thousand  dollar  house-lot  could  be  bought 
for  a  barrel  of  pork  or  flour,  or  a  suit  of  clothes.  For  some 
time  after,  immigration  was  checked.  At  the  date  of  the 
bishop's  visit,  the  white  population  of  the  territory  amounted 
to  twelve  thousand  souls.  He  passed  through  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Cassville,  Mineral  Point,  Madison,  and  Fort  Win- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      93 

nebago,  preaching  and  administering  the  holy  communion, 
and  early  in  August  arrived  at  Green  Bay,  where  he  con- 
firmed six  persons  and  laid  the  corner  stone  of  Christ  Church. 
He  also  visited  the  Oneida  settlement  at  Duck  Creek,  being 
escorted  thither  by  a  mounted  guard  of  thirty  Indians,  and 
laid  for  them  the  corner  stone  of  Hobart  Church.  He  then 
retraced  his  steps,  and  heard  news  that  agitated  his  mani- 
fold jurisdictions  :  that  he  had  been  elected  to  the  bishopric 
of  Maryland. 

The  following  tribute,  elicited  at  this  juncture  from  the 
vestry  of  Christ  Church,  St.  Louis,  witnesses  to  the  esteem 
in  which  he  was  held  : 

"  Resolved,  That  Bishop  Kemper  seems  particularly  fitted 
for  his  present  situation  as  Missionary  Bishop  at  the  West, 
not  only  in  the  great  essentials  to  be  expected  of  every 
Bishop,  piety  and  devotedness,  but  in  the  lesser  qualities 
which  are  all  important  to  his  efficiency  and  success  in  this 
region ;  viz,  firm  health  and  constitution,  which  have  been 
tried  by  the  climate  ;  a  cheerful  temper  and  popular  manners, 
enabling  him  to  come  in  contact  with  our  heterogeneous 
population,  with  favorable  impressions  on  their  side  to  the 
cause  in  which  he  is  engaged;  and  great  prudence  and 
caution,  peculiarly  requisite  amidst  a  population  made  up 
of  almost  all  religions  and  nations,  whose  moral  and  religious 
character  is  yet  unformed,  and  where  different  denomina- 
tions of  Christians  are  striving  to  make  establishment. 

''Resolved,  That  we  bear  testimony  to  the  activity  and 
perseverance  of  Bishop  Kemper  while  he  has  been  amongst 
us,  and  to  the  great  services  rendered  by  him. 

''Resolved,  That,  in  our  opinion,  his  removal  from  us 
would  be  to  undo  much  of  what  has  been  done  and  is  in 
progress,  favorable  to  the  growth  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  amongst  us ;  that  it  would  require  of  his  sue- 


94  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

cesser  several  years'  labor  and  travel  to  gain  the  practical 
information  possessed  by  Bishop  Kemper  of  the  wants  of  the 
West,  and  to  inspire  the  confidence  of  the  scattered  friends 
of  the  Church,  to  the  degree  now  acquired  by  him,  from 
personal  intercourse  with  them  at  their  homes  throughout 
this  vast  region. 

^^  Resolved,  That  his  presence  seems  necessary  to  Kemper 
College,  an  institution  just  commencing  here  under  favor- 
able auspices,  of  which  he  may  be  styled  the  founder,  and 
is  relied  upon  to  procure  for  it  proper  professors  and  instruc- 
tors, as  well  as  necessary  patronage  for  the  future." 

This  action  of  the  vestry,  widely  disseminated,  no  doubt 
expressed  and  helped  to  confirm  the  convictions  that  actu- 
ated Kemper  in  his  refusal  to  forsake  his  proper  and  chosen 
sphere  of  labor,  to  the  great  relief  of  all  concerned  save  the 
people  of  Maryland  ;  and  it  was  so  clear  and  emphatic  that 
it  put  a  quietus  upon  any  future  attempt  to  withdraw  him 
from  his  western  field.  An  allusion  in  the  first  resolution, 
to  his  "firm  health  and  constitution,"  may  have  sounded 
somewhat  surprising,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  he  had  completely 
outgrown  the  delicacy  of  his  early  years  in  the  ministry,  so 
that  he  positively  enjoyed  the  intense  cold  of  the  wintry 
plains, — protected  against  it  as  he  was  in  the  fashion  we 
will  let  him  describe  in  his  own  Avords,  momently. 

The  last  resolution  touched  a  subject  very  near  his  heart. 
A  desirable  property  had  been  bought  in  the  neighborhood 
of  St.  Louis,  building  had  been  begun  upon  it,  and  that 
very  autumn  Mr.  Minard  began  instruction  in  the  prepara- 
tory school  of  Kemper  College. 

On  his  return  from  general  convention,  the  bishop  was 
twice  overturned  in  vehicles  between  Baltimore  and  St. 
Louis,  but  without  serious  injury.  He  consecrated  the  com- 
pleted fabric,   "of  wood,  in  the  Gothic  style,"  of  Christ 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES      95 

Church,  Indianapohs ;  and  here  a  carelessly  worded  or 
printed  report  would  seem  to  indicate  that  on  one  and  the 
same  day  he  was  consecrating  a  church  in  Indiana  and  gal- 
loping across  western  Missouri  on  his  way  to  the  Indian 
Territory  !  Similar  powers  of  bilocation  are  reported  of 
mediaeval  saints.  It  was  in  fact  the  middle  of  November 
that  found  him  engaged  in  the  latter  journey,  but  the  mo- 
mentary confusion  affords  a  kinetoscopic  impression  of  the 
celerity  of  his  moments.  In  letters  to  his  family,  he  pic- 
tures himself  as  chilled  to  the  heart  and  shaking  with  cold 
while  eating  in  a  wretched  cabin  without  a  window,  so  that 
the  door  had  to  be  left  open  for  light ;  the  meal  consisted 
of  corn-dodgers  and  coffee,  without  butter  or  sugar.  The 
tract  through  which  he  rode,  on  horseback,  was  sparsely  in- 
habited, and  what  people  there  were  were  pitiably  poor.  ■ 
He  went  once  for  twenty  miles  in  a  driving  snowstorm 
without  seeing  a  house ;  one  night  he  was  glad  to  share  with 
eleven  others  the  shelter  of  a  log  house  of  a  single  room ; 
the  snow  drifted  in  and  lay  in  heaps  upon  the  middle  of  the 
floor  :  no  one  troubled  himself  to  remove  it,  and  it  did  not 
melt  in  the  slightest  degree.  Fastidious  though  the  bishop 
usually  was  about  his  toilet  and  the  like,  he  enjoyed  this  ex- 
traordinary experience.  Of  course  he  could  not  have  existed 
without  the  wraps  that  he  describes  :  "I  have  on  thick  blue 
cloth  leggings,  buffalo  moccasins  over  waterproof  boots,  a 
lion  skin  greatcoat  with  collar  turned  up  and  a  handker- 
chief around  it  to  keep  it  tight,  another  handkerchief 
around  my  ears,  and  want  nothing  beside  but  a  mask  of  rab- 
bit skin."  He  was  deeply  disappointed  at  the  condition  in 
which  he  found  the  lately  deported  Indians,  professedly 
Christian,  whom  it  was  his  object  to  visit ;  they  were  aban- 
doned to  the  evils  of  intemperance,  having  been  debauched 
by  the  rum-sellers  of  the  border. 


96  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

In  picturesque  contrast  with  this  freezing  tour  was  his 
visitation  in  Wisconsin  the  succeeding  summer  :  the  heat 
was  intense,  and  the  mosquitoes  were  so  many  and  fierce 
that  he  had  to  wear  a  veil,  for  protection.  His  recommen- 
dation that  Racine  be  made  a  mission  station  was  adopted. 
On  his  way  down  the  Mississippi  he  stopped  at  Dubuque 
and  Davenport;  in  fact,  for  1839  and  the  following  year  it 
is  sufficient  to  record  that  he  repeated  his  regular  routine  of 
visitations  in  Indiana,  Missouri,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  only 
interrupted  by  his  annual  tour  to  the  East. 

Turning  to  the  state  that  he  was  continually  encircling  on 
these  tours,  we  find  that  all  through  these  years  it  was  suffer- 
ing acutely  from  the  stringency  in  the  money  market,  and 
that  in  consequence  the  diocese  remained  stationary.  In 
1837,  Bishop  Chase  consecrated  St.  James'  Church,  Chi- 
cago,— and  then  the  panic  and  ensuing  hard  times  put  an 
abrupt  stop  to  church  building.  The  diocese  numbered 
eleven  clergymen ;  there  was  sore  need  of  traveling  evangel- 
ists, as  the  bishop  declared  to  his  convention ;  he  lamented 
the  fact  that  he  was  its  only  itinerant,  and  often  had  to  stay 
at  home  for  lack  of  funds.  It  was  almost  too  much  to  ex- 
pect a  man  of  his  age  and  size  to  undergo  the  toil  and  ex- 
posure of  such  travel, — over  the  wind-swept  prairies,  through 
creeks  and  sloughs  :  in  1838  a  carriage  in  which  he  was 
riding  was  upset  and  some  of  his  ribs  were  broken.  On  his 
diocesan  tours  he  never  failed  to  find  a  welcome  in  the  lone- 
liest hamlets  and  solitary  cabins ;  the  people  were  very 
friendly,  but  mostly  without  means,  and  engaged  in  a  des- 
perate struggle  for  bare  subsistence.  In  such  a  situation  it 
behoved  a  minister  to  go  and  seek,  he  said,  without  waiting 
for  a  call  and  salary  ;  and  he  pointed  out  that  the  condi- 
tions of  the  primitive  church  were  repeated  in  this  country, 
where  there  is  no  public  support  of  religion.     Missionaries 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       97 

must  be  content  with  corn  meal,  molasses,  and  pork,  instead 
of  bread,  sugar,  butter,  and  beef;  they  must  be  prepared  to 
endure  hardships,  yet  will  not  lack  compensations ;  a  buffalo 
coat  and  boots,  for  example,  with  warm  cap  and  gloves  are 
great  comforts,— and  the  coat  makes  an  excellent  blanket. 
In  a  new  country  versatile  genius  is  in  demand  ;  the  mis- 
sionary should  be  something  of  a  doctor,  nurse,  and  cook. 

Bishop  Chase  was  delayed  by  the  hard  times  in  the  execu- 
tion of  his  educational  project.  In  fact,  he  had  to  encounter 
in  Illinois  the  same  difficulties  that  in  Ohio  had  beset  the 
locating  of  Kenyon  College.  No  good  land  was  to  be 
cheaply  bought;  everpvhere  he  found  "individual  cupid- 
ity" in  conflict  with  and  defeating  "public  utility."  After 
some  years  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  site  according  to  his 
mind :  a  low,  wooded  ridge  along  a  creek,  in  Peoria 
county;  and  on  the  3rd  of  April,  1839,  he  had  the  satis- 
faction of  laying  the  corner  stone  of  the  chapel  of  Jubilee 
College.  It  was  a  beautiful  day,  and  the  knoll  was  thronged 
with  folk  from  far  and  near,  who  found  sitting  room  on  the 
heaps  of  stone  just  quarried  for  the  chapel.  The  bishop 
said  that  never  before  in  his  life  had  he  been  filled  with  such 
solemn  gladness ;  and  he  explained  that  the  name  he  had 
chosen  for  the  college  suited  best  of  any  his  feelings  and  cir- 
cumstances:  "after  seven  years  I  rejoice  in  a  return  of 
God's  favor." 

The  year  1839  saw  the  second  crisis  in  the  history  of 
Kenyon  College,  and  Chase  remarked,  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  pardonable  satisfaction,  that  his  successor  in  the 
bishopric  of  Ohio  was  forced  to  adopt  his  position.  Dr. 
Sparrow  had  rallied  the  opposition  to  Bishop  Mcllvaine,  who 
had  no  alternative,  he  said,  but  to  quell  it  or  quit  the  dio- 
cese. So  battle  was  joined  and  the  bishop  triumphed, — for 
the  diocese  did  not  seek  another  episcopal  resignation ;   Mc- 


98  AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Ilvaine  said,  later,  that  he  would  have  resigned  had  he  been 
outvoted.  His  opponents  on  the  college  faculty  were  re- 
moved ;  Sparrow  left  Gambler,  an  ' '  earthquake  of  feeling 
in  his  heart."  But  the  change  did  not  work  well ;  confi- 
dence declined ;  and  before  very  long  Mcllvaine  himself 
vainly  sought  Sparrow's  return,  promising  himself  to  leave 
Gambler. 

Chase's  English  funds,  all  that  he  had,  had  been  con- 
sumed in  the  purchase  of  land  and  beginning  of  building  at 
Jubilee,  so  he  had  to  look  around  for  means,  and  resolved 
to  travel  for  his  college  through  the  southern  states.  He 
applied  to  Kemper  for  his  good-will,  and  received  the  fol- 
lowing note : 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Nov.  29,  1839. 
The  plan  of  the  venerable  Bishop  Chase  is  exceedingly  interesting, 
and  one  of  great  importance  to  the  future  prosperity  of  our  country, 
and  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  the  living  God  in  the  Diocese  of  Illi- 
nois.    I  wish  him  every  success  in  his  noble  and  arduous  undertaking. 

Jackson  Kemper, 
Missionary   Bishop   of  Missouri,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  etc.,  and  Acting 
Bishop  of  Indiana. 

New  Year's  day,  1840,  Chase  was  in  New  Orleans  again, 
— when  suddenly  a  clergyman  appeared,  begging  for  Kem- 
per College.  "How  like  my  former  trials  !  "  he  exclaimed, 
recalling  the  competition  when  he  was  first  in  England.  He 
only  obtained  in  that  great  city  fifty  dollars  for  Jubilee ;  but 
arrears  of  salary  thirty  years  old  were  paid  him  by  Christ 
Church.  He  sailed  in  a  schooner  to  Charleston,  where  he 
succeeded  in  raising  an  endowment  of  ten  thousand  dollars 
for  a  professorship.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  Savannah  and 
Columbia,  where  the  Reverend  Stephen  Elliott  gave  him 
two  hundred  dollars.  "  I  never  was  better  treated,"  the 
bishop  testified,   "than  in  South  Carolina  and   Georgia." 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES       99 

At  Norfolk  he  visited  a  man-of-war  that  was  lying  in  the 
harbor,  and  found  that  the  sailors  preferred  the  Church 
service  to  any  other  :  "  The  Church  they  regard  as  the  reg- 
ular troops;  all  others,  as  the  militia."  Thence  he  trav- 
ersed the  northeastern  states  with  a  fair  degree  of  success, 
getting  subscriptions  in  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York, 
Brooklyn  and  Hartford. 

The  year  1841  was  a  notable  one  in  the  history  of  Kem- 
per and  his  group.  His  college  at  St.  Louis  was  then  in 
running  order,  domiciled  in  its  own  large  hall ;  more  than 
forty  students  were  receiving  instruction  in  mathematics,  the 
classics,  rhetoric  and  "belle  lettres,"  from  a  faculty  of  three 
professors, — but  over  the  institution  hung  an  ominous  debt 
of  nearly  five  thousand  dollars ;  a  storm  was  brewing  in  that 
cloud,  then  only  as  large  as  a  man's  hand.  The  grammar 
school  continued,  alongside  the  college,  and  the  bishop's 
ambition  now  was  to  engage  a  theological  professor  and  open 
a  seminary.  In  January  he  journeyed  east  with  this  in  view, 
and  also  to  seek  missionaries  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  church 
in  Wisconsin ;  and  at  the  General  Seminary  met  four  stu- 
dents who  gave  themselves  to  him  for  the  latter  work.  Here 
comes  into  relief  the  importance  of  seminary  courses  in 
apostology;  those  young  men  had  been  inspired  by  Dr. 
Whittingham's  lectures  in  church  history,  in  which  he  caused 
to  pass  before  their  mental  vision  the  heroic  figures  of  the 
golden  age  of  missions,  which  ever  after  loomed  and  beck- 
oned upon  their  spiritual  horizon :  Columba  and  his  com- 
panions, mariner  missionaries  among  the  western  islands  of 
Scotland  ;  St.  Gall,  amid  the  Swiss  mountains ;  Boniface, 
the  apostle  of  sylvan  Germany ;  Willibrord,  of  the  Frisian 
dunes,  and  Ansgar,  of  the  Scandinavian  lakes.  Their  hearts 
had  burned  within  them  as  they  heard  Kemper  tell,  upon  his 
previous   visit,    of    similar    splendid    opportunities   in   the 


100         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

boundless  West,  and  they  had  eagerly  talked  the  matter  over 
in  their  rooms,  taken  trusted  advice,  and  come  to  an  affirm- 
ative decision.  Their  names  were  William  Adams,  James 
Lloyd  Breck,  John  Henry  Hobart,  and  James  Warley  Miles. 
The  first,  an  Irishman,  was  the  maturest  in  mind  as  in 
years ;  he  was  a  thinker  and  scholar,  fond  of  the  contem- 
plative life,  yet  no  dreamer,  quick-witted,  and  a  born 
teacher.  Breck  was  his  junior  by  several  years,  but  became 
the  soul  of  the  movement.  He  was  born  near  Philadelphia 
in  1818.  His  parents  were  church  people,  and  from  the 
first  he  enjoyed  catholic  nurture.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he 
was  placed  in  the  school  that  Muhlenberg  had  just  opened 
at  Flushing,  Long  Island,  whither  Bishop  Kemper  also  sent 
his  sons,  and  there,  for  the  six  ensuing  impressionable  years 
of  his  life  he  responded  to  the  moulding  influence  of  that 
great  evangelical  catholic.  There  the  precocious  youth  re- 
solved to  devote  himself  to  a  celibate  ministry;  stringent 
discipline  was  what  his  nature  craved ;  and  the  religious  life, 
narrowly  interpreted  in  its  mediaeval  sense, — that  is,  the 
ascetic, — became  henceforth  his  lode-star.  He  was  so  well 
advanced  in  his  studies  at  Flushing  that  in  1836  he  was  able 
to  enter  the  junior  class  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
whence  he  passed,  after  two  years,  to  the  General  Seminary. 
Hobart  was  a  son  of  the  bishop  of  that  name.  His  dom- 
inant inspiration  was  missionary.  Only  after  much  urging, 
and  then  with  extreme  reluctance,  could  his  bishop  be  per- 
suaded to  relinquish  his  claim  to  Hobart's  services,  while 
Miles's  positively  refused  to  let  him  go,  saying  that  he  was 
more  needed  in  South  Carolina,  his  native  state.  This  was 
a  great  disappointment  to  all  concerned,  for,  according  to 
Breck' s  testimony,  to  Miles  was  due  the  first  suggestion  of  a 
religious  house  somewhere  on  the  western  frontier,  to  evan- 
gelize and  educate  the  people. 


AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH         101 

On  the  fourth  of  March,  General  Harrison  was  inaugu- 
rated President  of  the  United  States, — a  victory  for  the 
northwest,  as  Jackson's  election  was  for  the  southwest,  mark- 
ing the  rise  in  political  importance  of  those  sections, — but 
after  exactly  one  month  he  expired.  Dr.  Upfold  improved 
the  sad  occasion  to  administer  a  severe  castigation  to  his 
people,  upon  a  text  from  the  prophet  Jeremiah  :  "  My  peo- 
ple have  committed  two  evils ;  they  have  forsaken  me  the 
fountain  of  living  waters,  and  hewed  them  out  cisterns, 
broken  cisterns,  that  can  hold  no  water."  During  his  ten 
years'  pastorate  at  Pittsburg,  Upfold  had  become  a  power  in 
his  parish,  the  community,  and  the  surrounding  country. 
He  had  paid  off  a  debt  upon  his  church,  had  had  the  edi- 
fice thoroughly  repaired  and  a  fine  organ  placed  in  it ;  and, 
unwilling  to  let  his  activities  be  circumscribed  by  parochial 
routine,  had  ministered  to  vacant  parishes  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  city,  and  made  missionary  excursions  that 
familiarized  him  with  the  needs  of  western  Pennsylvania. 
The  sermon  referred  to  was  one  of  his  greatest  homiletic 
efforts ;  it  was  an  exposure  of  the  short-sighted  worldliness 
of  the  American  populace,  and  the  evils  of  the  times.  The 
people  have  forgotten  the  Lord  their  God,  and  are  given 
over  to  irreligion  and  accompanying  profligacy,  peculation 
and  speculation ;  departing  from  republican  simplicity,  they 
are  abandoned  to  the  pursuit  of  luxury  and  its  means  ;  have 
imported  debased  amusements,  and  lavish  their  wealth  on 
"histrionic  adventurers,  singers,  fiddlers,  and  lascivious 
dancing  girls."  Sabbath  breaking,  profanity,  and  intem- 
perance are  fearfully  common  ;  the  press  is  obscene ;  the 
love  of  money  has  become  idolatry.  Money  is  the  god  of 
thousands,  and  its  acquisition  the  passion  of  the  age ;  avarice 
and  indulgence  are  the  ruling  propensities  of  the  nation. 
Wealth  had  become  a  source  of  confidence,  making  men 


102         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

feel  independent  of  God, — hence  the  scourge  of  tlie  kite  fi- 
nancial disasters,  for  recovery  from  which  the  besotted  peo- 
ple looked  every  way  but  the  right  one,  putting  their  reliance 
upon  industry,  the  richness  of  the  soil,  republican  govern- 
ment,— and  especially  upon  a  man,  William  Henry  Harrison, 
whose  election  was  to  cure  every  ill  and  restore  confidence 
and  credit.     And  now  he  is  taken  from  their  eyes. 

A  union  of  church  and  state,  the  preacher  concluded,  is 
to  be  deprecated,  but  no  infidel  state  can  stand.  Without 
religion  there  can  be  no  stability  ;  government  will  degener- 
ate into  anarchy,  as  during  the  French  Revolution.  "  Re- 
ligion, practically  recognized  in  our  public  affairs,  and  by 
our  public  men,  is  the  great  safeguard  of  our  liberties." 

Immediately  after  graduation  from  the  seminary,  Adams, 
Breck  and  Hobart  were  ordered  deacons,  and  accepted  by 
the  board  of  missions  for  work  in  Wisconsin.  Hobart  left 
first,  to  survey  the  field  ;  the  others  followed  in  September ; 
they  made  Prairieville  (now  Waukesha)  their  centre  of  op- 
erations, organized  a  parish  which  they  called  St.  John's  in 
the  Wilderness,  and  itinerated  in  every  direction  for  a  ra- 
dius of  fifty  miles. 

The  missionary  jurisdictions  of  Indiana  and  Missouri  had 
by  this  time  been  organized  as  dioceses,  Kemper  presiding ; 
and  the  former  now  eagerly  elected  him  as  its  diocesan,  but 
he  declined.  The  time  had  not  yet  nearly  come  for  him  so 
to  settle  clown,  and  he  was  deeply  interested  in  his  college 
and  the  Wisconsin  mission.  It  was  a  moment  of  hope  and 
energy  in  Indiana ;  Dr.  Eryan  Killikelly,  missionary  at  Vin- 
cennes,  was  in  England  that  summer,  pleading  for  his  work, 
and  with  the  cordial  assistance  of  the  bishop  of  London  ob- 
tained over  two  hundred  pounds  sterling  to  helj)  him  in 
building  his  church. 

Dr.  Andrew  Wylie,  an  eminent  Presbyterian  dominie,  and 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     1()3 

president  of  the  state  university  at  Bloomington,  alienated 
by  the  violent  controversies  within  his  communion,  and  con- 
cluding that  "sectarianism  is  heresy,"  applied  to  Kemper 
for  ordination.  This  famous  conversion  fluttered  the  dove- 
cotes of  western  Presbyterianism  as  a  similar  event,  the 
conversion  of  a  rector  and  several  tutors  of  Yale  College, 
had  agitated  the  Congregational  societies  of  New  England 
more  than  a  century  before. 

The  bishop  was  the  recipient  this  year  of  a  legacy  from 
some  maiden  ladies  of  Philadelphia.  He  accepted  an  in- 
vitation to  preach  the  triennial  sermon  before  the  board  of 
missions  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  York,  and  took  as  his 
text  the  admirably  appropriate  passage  in  the  tenth  chapter 
of  St.  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  thirteenth  and  fol- 
lowing verses.  At  the  close  of  a  glowing  incentive  to  mis- 
sionary duty,  he  spoke,  as  his  audience  expected  him  to 
speak,  of  his  own  field,  in  prophetic  strain:  "With  re- 
spect to  the  western  portion  of  our  own  country,  the  mighty 
West,  the  seat  of  future  empires, — from  whence  the  arts 
and  sciences  and,  if  we  are  faithful  to  our  trust,  the  elevat- 
ing and  holy  doctrines  of  Christianity  in  all  their  vital 
influence  are  to  extend  far  and  wide,  through  Mexico  and 
the  almost  boundless  plains  of  South  America  to  Cape 
Horn  and  the  Isles  of  the  Pacific, — even  in  the  West, 
amidst  the  wildest  speculations,  the  most  intense  excitement, 
and  the  all-absorbing  desire  to  be  rich, — even  there  the 
Church  has  been  planted,  and  in  many  a  village  is  to  be 
found  a  band  of  faithful  worshippers. 

"  To  theological  students,  in  whose  welfare  I  am  most 
truly  interested,  I  can  speak  with  plainness;  for  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  if  amid  the  prodigious  efforts  of  Popery,  the  beau- 
tiful example  set  us  by  various  denominations  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  delightful,  the  noble  stand  which  our  highly 


104         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

honored  mother,  the  Church  of  England,  has  at  last  taken 
in  reference  to  missions,  there  is  even  one,  looking  to  the 
ministry,  who  has  not  in  all  sincerity  and  from  his  heart 
said  to  his  Saviour,  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth, — 
and  is  not  ready  to  say  to  the  Church,  Here  am  I,  send  me, 
— he  has  mistaken  his  calling.  The  spirit  to  be  cultivated 
at  the  schools  of  the  prophets  is  the  spirit  of  unreserved  and 
entire  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christ  Jesus  and  Him  cruci- 
fied.    The  heart,  the  whole  heart  is  required." 

On  the  second  Sunday  in  Advent,  Andrew  Wylie  was  or- 
dered deacon,  being  upward  of  fifty  years  of  age.  It  was 
felt  to  be  a  deeply  interesting,  indeed  momentous  event  in 
the  history  of  the  infant  diocese  of  Indiana.  The  ordina- 
tion took  place  at  New  Albany,  and  Samuel  Roosevelt 
Johnson  was  the  preacher.  In  his  sermon  he  set  forth 
in  incisive  terms  the  doctrine  of  a  catholic  deposit, — a 
trust,  not  subjective,  but  "  a  witness  which  God  has  given 
His  Church,  independent  of  us,  transmitted  to  our  care, 
which  we  must  accept  and  faithfully  declare  and  hand  over 
to  the  generation  which  shall  succeed,  without  addition, 
diminution,  or  reserve. 

"I  would  prefer  grace  to  knowledge  that  might  lead  to 
grace, — would  rather  possess  my  privilege  than  know  of  it." 

The  ordinand  cordially  assented  to  these  sentiments, — in- 
deed, the  preacher  and  he  were  the  formative  ecclesiastical 
influences  of  the  diocese.  Wylie  was  its  representative  at 
the  next  general  convention,  whereat  his  was  the  only  voice 
raised  in  defense  of  the  Oxford  tracts.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  a  wave  from  Oxford  that  had  just  struck  New 
York,  leaped  over  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  and  then  poured 
along  the  same  parallels,  inundating  Indiana  and  Wisconsin, 
eddying  around  and  finally  engulfing  Illinois.  Hence  the 
desperate  efforts  the  evangelical  association  made  to  check 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     105 

its  further  progress  by  placing  their  men  in  Iowa,  like  stones 
in  a  wall,  having  the  Mississippi  for  a  dyke. 

Little  did  Henry  Lee  dream  at  that  time  of  his  coming 
relation  to  the  latter  see.  After  finishing  his  course  at 
Cheshire,  he  moved  to  Massachusetts,  taught  school  for  a 
while  at  Taunton,  carrying  on  his  theological  studies  pri- 
vately, was  ordained  by  Bishop  Griswold,  and  installed,  in 
1840,  as  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Springfield. 

Joseph  Talbot  meantime  left  his  native  Virginia  for  Ken- 
tucky, and  engaged  in  business  in  Louisville.  He  was  bap- 
tized the  year  he  attained  his  majority,  and  in  1841  began 
his  preparation  for  the  ministry.  At  that  date,  Hawks  had 
for  some  years  been  in  holy  orders,  and  was  in  charge  of 
Trinity  Church,  Buffalo ;  and  Vail  had  given  evidence  of 
unusual  activity  and  ability.  After  graduating  at  the  Gen- 
eral Seminary,  he  was  ordered  deacon  by  Bishop  Brownell, 
and  was  called  to  be  assistant  at  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Boston.  While  thus  engaged,  he  organized  All  Saint's 
Church,  Worcester.  He  was  priested  by  Bishop  Griswold 
on  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  1837,  and  was  rector  of 
Christ  Church,  Cambridge,  for  two  years  thereafter,  when 
h'e  returned  to  Connecticut.  In  1841  he  brought  out  his  re- 
markable book,  "The  Comprehensive  Church,"  which  was 
read  in  manuscript  and  approved  by  Bishop  Brownell. 

Its  thesis  is  that  everything  necessary  to  Christian  unity 
and  ecclesiastical  union,  with  nothing  superfluous,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Episcopal  church.  Its  tone  is  tolerant,  undog- 
matic  ;  it  is  an  interesting  contribution  from  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal side  to  the  literature  of  the  age  of  Henry  Clay  and  com- 
promise. The  writer  explains  at  the  outset  that  he  does  not 
intend  to  discuss  disputed  points,  such  as  apostolical  suc- 
cession or  the  principle  of  a  liturgy.  His  initial  premise  is 
that  originally  all  Christians  were  churchmen,  and  that  reli- 


106         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

gious  divisions  are  great  evils.  He  refuses  to  surrender  the 
term  "  Catholic"  to  the  Roman  church,  and  defends  the 
church  of  England  from  the  charge  of  schism  :  the  papacy 
was  never  universal,  and  had  no  lawful  authority  over  Eng- 
land, no  authority  to  excommunicate  a  national  church ; 
Roman  excommunications  are  valid  only  in  the  Roman  dio- 
cese ;  England  broke  with  the  Roman,  not  with  the  univer- 
sal church.  As  regards  the  relation  of  the  English  and 
American  churches,  the  brave  claim  is  advanced  that  the 
current  figure  of  mother  and  daughter  must  yield  to  that  of 
sisterhood,  on  the  principle  of  the  equality  of  national 
churches ;  a  declaration  of  ecclesiastical  independence  ! 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  church  was  moored,  theologically 
and  every  way,  alongside  the  English,  until  Vail  cut  the 
cables.  Sectarianism  seemed  to  him  without  excuse;  its 
principle  he  defined  as  "continual  separation,  in  order  to 
secure  the  most  exact  assimilation,"  until  at  last  unity  is  re- 
solved into  its  units,  and  the  sect  becomes  the  individual. 
He  answers  the  popular  apologies  for  division  on  the 
ground  of  its  supposed  benefits, — increase  of  zeal,  for 
example ;  pointing  out  that  such  increase  is  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish from  fanaticism,  and  is  moreover  outweighed  by  the 
skepticism  it  engenders ;  whereas  there  never  was  more 
genuine  and  heroic  zeal  than  in  the  early  ages,  when  the 
Church  was  one.  The  arguments  of  the  Baptists  are  com- 
pletely turned  by  the  fact  of  the  rite  of  confirmation  and  ad- 
mission of  the  lawfulness  of  immersion.  It  is  admitted 
that  the  one  distinctive  point  in  each  denomination  is  gener- 
ally a  truth,  made  disproportionally  prominent ;  the  ques- 
tion is,  Is  there  in  existence  any  religious  organization  that 
combines  the  truths  of  all  ? — and  the  author  answers,  Yes, 
the  Episcopal,  "  because,  in  its  system,  those  points  which 
its  own  members  hold  essential  and  which  are  not  provided 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     107 

for  in  any  other  system,  and  those  also  which  are  held  essen- 
tial by  the  various  other  denominations,  are  distinctly  recog- 
nized and  amply  provided  for."  In  it  "  the  elements  of 
the  three  great  systems,  the  Episcopal,  the  Presbyterial,  the 
Congregational,  are  so  combined  that  the  entire  strength  of 
each  is  preserved."  The  laity  have  a  share  in  its  govern- 
ment, parochial,  diocesan,  and  national ;  in  fact,  its  consti- 
tution bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  the  republic, 
with  which  it  is  geographically  co-extensive.  (Happily  for 
the  writer,  Kemper  had  just  made  this  last  claim  good.) 
The  theory  of  the  Episcopal  church  is,  that  the  church  of 
Christ  is  itself  the  great  Missionary  Society  appointed  by 
Him,  and  that  His  sacraments  are  as  free  to  all  His  true  dis- 
ciples as  are  the  benefits  of  His  precious  blood.  As  to  doc- 
trine, there  have  been  and  are,  both  in  the  English  and 
American  churches,  both  Calvinists  and  Arminians  among 
both  clergy  and  laity.  And  forms  of  public  worship  may  be 
changed  by  the  will  of  the  majority.  The  author  regrets 
that  churchmen  themselves  too  often  exhibit  sectarian  spirit, 
not  realizing  the  largeness  of  their  communion,  and  how 
many  diversities  of  opinion  and  practice  are  permissible  in 
it.  "It  is  treason  against  nature  and  nature's  God,"  he  ex- 
claims, "to  attempt  to  shape  all  the  varieties  of  individual, 
mental,  moral,  and  physical  character,  by  one  exact  and 
elaborately  contrived  standard  of  human  rules.  .  .  .  It  is 
the  fundamental  error  of  sectarism,  .  .  .  — an  error  into 
which  the  weakness  of  men  is  continually  falling.  It 
springs  from  that  inordinate  but  hidden  self-love,  which 
causes  every  man  to  look  at  himself  as  the  standard  of  per- 
fection, to  which  all  others  must  be  made  to  conform. 

"  The  great  fault  of  ecclesiastical  legislators,  in  all  ages  of 
the  Church,  has  been  in  legislating  too  much.  .  .  .  They 
seem  to  have  forgotten  that  there  are  laws  in  nature  itself  and 


108         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

in  the  Gospel  as  well  as  in  their  codes  of  canons.  They 
ought  to  have  faith  in  the  common  sense  and  the  deliberate 
judgments  and  the  sincere  hearts  of  Christian  people ;  they 
should  trust  much  to  the  laws  of  experience,  the  laws  of  the 
human  mind  and  affections ;  they  should  have  calm  confi- 
dence in  the  gracious  care  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  Head  of  the  Church." 

Such  is  the  argument  of  Vail's  remarkable  treatise,  the 
most  remarkable,  indeed,  about  the  only  publication  in  book 
form  produced  by  the  group  around  Bishop  Kemper.  It 
may  reflect  too  fully  the  spirit  of  compromise  of  the  age  out 
of  which  it  arose, — may  be  too  pliable  in  some  of  its  ap- 
plications,— though  he  maintained  that  in  practice  extreme 
tendencies  would  be  automatically  adjusted, — but  its  spirit 
is  in  line  with  sound  Anglican  and  truly  catholic  tradition, 
— is  in  truth  identical  with  the  spirit  of  Richard  Hooker 
and,  further  back,  of  Bishop  Pecocke ;  and  those  who  cry 
out  against  it  owe  to  it  their  foothold  in  the  church.  It 
offers  a  refreshing  contrast  to  the  violent  party  contests  and 
ecclesiastical  trials  of  its  day ;  it  indicated,  long  before,  the 
lines  along  which  the  church  was  to  progress ;  and,  finally, 
in  its  clear-cut  distinction  between  nature  and  sin  it  was  far 
in  advance  of  the  times  and  still  remains  so  in  a  measure. 

Kemper's  plan  of  visitation  of  all  his  dioceses  and  juris- 
dictions for  the  year  1842  reveals  a  general  intention  of 
spending  a  week  at  every  parish  or  mission  station  visited. 
This  may  have  been  the  common  custom  then;  Bishop 
Cobbs  followed  it,  and  so  had  time  to  call  upon  every 
church  family  in  every  place,  become  personally  acquainted 
with  every  individual,  and  so  be  in  truth  the  chief  pastor  of 
his  diocese.  Kemper  reported  this  year  that  there  were 
thirty-one  clergymen  and  that  he  had  confirmed  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-one  persons  in  his  field.     In  a  report  from 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     109 

Prairieville,  Wisconsin,  rendered  by  William  Adams,  as 
clerk  of  the  associated  mission,  we  find  the  following  refer- 
ence: "  We  have  had  an  interesting  visit  from  Bishop  Kem- 
per. We  believe  he  is  satisfied  with  our  eff"orts.  And 
though  in  his  services  he  wore  the  robes  appropriate  to  his 
office,  a  thing  before  unheard  of  in  this  region,  still  we 
have  heard  no  complaints,  and  we  know  that  the  dignified 
and  impressive  way  in  which  he  performed  the  solemn 
duties  of  the  Episcopate,  as  well  the  reverential  suavity  of 
his  natural  manner,  have  brought  it  close  to  the  most  careless, 
that  the  commission  borne  by  an  apostolic  bishop  is  not  of 
man,  neither  by  man,  but  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

In  the  same  report  a  "  Catholic  feature  "  of  the  mission 
is  noted, — classes  of  adult  catechumens,  conducted  by  the 
brethren ;  and  an  intention  of  having  weekly  communions, 
"according  to  primitive  practice,"  is  recorded.  To  this 
end  the  brothers  had  sought  to  secure  the  services  of  the 
good  missionary  priest,  Richard  Cadle,  and  to  convert  him 
into  the  Father  Superior  of  their  order, — but  the  worthy 
man  shied  at  the  novel  honor.  With  funds  that  Hobart  had 
obtained  at  the  East  a  beautiful  tract  of  land  was  bought 
about  Nashotah  (signifying  "Twin  Lakes"),  and  thither, 
in  August,  the  mission  was  moved.  The  following  October, 
Adams  and  Breck  were  advanced  to  the  priesthood,  and  the 
latter  was  made  head  of  the  religious  house.  A  few  theo- 
logical students  answered  to  the  lay  brothers  of  Vallombrosa ; 
they  supported  themselves  by  farm  work,  etc.,  according  to 
the  primitive  method  at  Gambier.  The  community  rose  at 
five  o'clock,  had  services  (lauds  or  prime)  at  six  and  nine 
in  the  morning,  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  the  litany  and 
on  Thursdays  Holy  Communion  at  noontide,  and  services 
at  three  and  half-past  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  answer- 
ing to  nones  and  vespers.     Now  at  length,  as  Breck  wrote 


110         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

home  with  glee,  he  began  to  feel  that  he  was  really  in  a 
monastery.  But  within  a  year  from  that  hopeful  start  it 
seemed  as  if  the  community  would  be  dissolved.  Adams 
had  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia,  felt  unequal  to  bearing 
the  business  burdens  of  the  house,  and  returned  to  the  East ; 
Hobart  lingered  a  few  months  longer,  and  then  followed  ; 
and  Breck  began  to  think  of  moving  further  west. 

At  this  period  Kenyon  College  was  in  such  financial 
straits  that  it  was  in  imminent  danger  of  being  lost  to  the 
church, — but  a  mighty  effort  was  made,  collections  were 
taken  for  it  on  a  large  scale  among  congregations  through- 
out the  eastern  dioceses,  and  it  was  saved ;  but  the  extra- 
ordinary exertion  resulted  in  a  deficit  in  the  missionary 
treasury  that  reduced  many  a  poor  minister  on  the  frontier 
to  pinching  poverty. 

One  is  startled  to  hear  that  in  1843  a  medical  department 
was  annexed  to  Kem})er  College  and  already  boasted  of  the 
formidable  number  of  seventy-five  students.  The  attention 
of  the  church  was  called  to  this  Protestant  Episcopal  Uni- 
versity west  of  the  Mississippi,  which  "  promised  a  rich  re- 
turn for  its  fostering  care,"  and  seemed  destined  to  "hand 
down  the  name  of  its  beloved  founder  to  other  ages."  There 
were  but  a  score  of  students,  however,  in  the  collegiate  de- 
partment, at  whose  first  commencement  the  bishop  presided 
that  summer. 

The  good  example  set  by  his  young  itinerants  in  Wiscon- 
sin moved  him  to  urge  the  appointment  of  two  or  more 
missionaries  of  similar  type  to  operate  in  Indiana.  That 
diocese  now  made  another  attempt  to  perfect  its  organiza- 
tion, electing  Thomas  Atkinson  of  Virginia  as  its  bishop, — 
but  he  declined.  Its  leading  presbyter,  Roosevelt  Johnson, 
waived  a  like  ofTer.  Missouri  diocese  had  similar  aspira- 
tions and  electoral  difficulties,  which  it  solved  by  throwing  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     111 

onus  upon  the  general  convention,  entreating  it  to  choose 
a  bishop.  In  1843,  Cicero  Stephens  Hawks  accepted  a  call 
to  the  rectorate  of  Christ  Church,  St.  Louis ;  and  the  favor 
with  which  he  was  received  determined  the  choice  of  the 
convention.  On  the  20th  of  October,  1844,  (the  day  of 
Cobbs'  consecration),  and  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
he  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Missouri  by  Philander  Chase, 
now  presiding  bishop,  assisted  by  Kemper,  McCoskry,  Polk, 
and  DeLancey. 


With  this  event  terminated  what  is  in  one  way  the  most 
interesting  period  of  our  hero's  life,— the  dawn,  or  morning 
of  his  episcopate,  with  its  wide  and  long  vistas,  its  freshness 
and  promise.  Wonderful  indeed  was  the  accomplishment 
of  those  nine  mystic  years,  especially  when  we  consider  that 
it  was  before  the  days  of  railroads, — that  he  had  to  toil 
painfully  in  wagons,  on  horseback  or  afoot  along  wretched 
roads  over  boundless  tracts  that  the  traveler  now  crosses 
smoothly,  gliding  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a  minute  in  a  palace 
car.  One  outlet  of  his  energy  having  been  stopped,  we  be- 
come aware  of  a  certain  limitation  ;  yet  the  setting  off  of 
Missouri  simply  freed  him  to  expand  in  other  directions. 
Truth  to  tell,  he  had  felt  least  at  home  in  that  state ;  out  of 
the  city  of  St.  Louis  and  two  or  three  towns,  he  had  always 
felt  balked  by  the  class  he  had  to  deal  with, — the  unim- 
pressible  "poor  whites."  The  era  of  beginnings  was  not 
wholly  over ;  and  the  noonday  of  his  episcopate  which  we 
now  enter  was  equally  missionary  with  the  earlier  period, 
and  possesses  an  interest  of  its  own.  As  a  happy  aid  to  the 
memory,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  remainder  of  his 
career  is  articulated  into  five-yearly  periods:  in  1844, 
Hawks  became  bishop  of  Missouri;   in   1849,  George  Up- 


112         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

fold,  of  Indiana;  in  1854,  Henry  Washington  Lee,  of 
Iowa;  in  1859,  Henry  Benjamin  Whipple,  of  Minnesota; 
in  1864,  Thomas  Hubbard  Vail,  of  Kansas.  Would  that 
for  symmetry  we  might  add,  in  1869,  Ozi  William  Whita- 
ker,  of  Nevada;  but,  though  an  indirect  connection  may 
certainly  be  traced,  that  field  lay  beyond  the  utmost  western 
verge  of  Kemper's  horizon.  These  dates,  furthermore,  co- 
incide with  epochs  in  his  life  that  are  divisible  by  five,  thus : 
fifty-five  years,  sixty,  sixty-five,  seventy,  seventy-five,  and 
eighty  years. 

For  some  time  his  centre  of  interest  and  of  gravity  had 
been  gradually  shifting  from  Missouri  to  Wisconsin,  from 
St.  Louis  to  Nashotah, — and  the  latter  henceforth  became 
his  base  of  operations.  The  winter  of  1845  was  spent  in 
Wisconsin,  partly  at  Milwaukee,  where  he  consecrated  St. 
Paul's  Church,  partly  at  Nashotah,  which  he  visited  re- 
peatedly. So  much  of  the  latter  half  of  the  year  and  of 
1846  was  passed  in  Milwaukee  that  that  city  may  be  re- 
garded as  his  transitional  residence.  It  received  a  city 
charter  in  the  latter  year,  having  attained  a  population  of 
nearly  ten  thousand  souls,  of  the  most  heterogeneous  char- 
acter ;  already  nearly  every  European  nation  Avas  represented 
in  it,  and  every  sect.  It  was  erected  into  a  see  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  a  Swiss  priest  named  Henni  was 
made  its  bishop ;  at  the  same  time,  Universalist  and  Uni- 
tarian societies  were  formed  there.  In  its  diversities,  Mil- 
waukee was  a  type  of  the  territory  of  which  it  was  the  me- 
tropolis, into  which  a  veritable  human  deluge  was  pouring ; 
long  before  the  last  Indians  were  removed  from  its  bounds, 
English,  Scotch,  Irish  and  Welsh,  French,  Belgian,  Dutch, 
German,  Swedish  and  Norwegian,  Polish  and  Hungarian 
immigrants  were  swarming  there;  after  the  revolutionary 
disturbances  of  1848  (in  which  year  the  territory  became  a 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     113 

State),  the  inrush  from  Europe  resembled  a  stampede ;  in  a 
single  year  the  increase  amounted  to  almost  a  hundred 
thousand  souls.  And  so  Wisconsin  became  the  polyglot 
state  of  the  union,  its  foreign-born  out  of  all  proportion  to 
its  native  or  American  inhabitants.  This  is  its  distinction, 
and  it  makes  it  a  fruitful  field  of  study  and  its  future  a 
problem  for  the  human  biologist. 

In  November,  1846,  Bishop  Kemper  took  possession  of  a 
rustic  homestead,  thenceforth  humorously  known  as  "the 
Palace,"  hard  by  Nashotah,  and  for  the  first  time  since 
leaving  Norwalk,  a  length  of  eleven  years,  had  a  house 
whither  he  could  bring  his  daughter,  now  a  young  lady, 
from  Philadelphia.  For  all  those  years  he  was  literally  a 
homeless  wanderer ;  a  lot  hard  to  be  borne  by  one  whose 
domestic  tastes  and  ties  were  as  strong  as  his.  With  deep 
delight  he  kindled  his  hearth-fire  again,  and  unpacked  his 
books  and  other  souvenirs  of  his  old  home  and  vanished 
wife.  The  year  following  his  father  died,  at  the  age  of 
ninety-eight,  and  the  bishop's  two  unmarried  sisters  came 
to  live  with  him.  And  two  years  after  that  his  son  Lewis, 
who  seems  to  have  resembled  him  in  temperament  and  char- 
acter, was  graduated  at  Columbia  College  and  began  the 
study  of  theology  at  Nashotah.  So  the  bishop  had  at  last 
quite  a  family  gathered  about  him,  amid  which  he  led  a 
serene  and  beautiful  existence. 

He  rose  early,  at  five  o'clock  in  summer  and  six  in  win- 
ter, and  attributed  his  established  health  in  large  measure  to 
his  habitual  morning  bath  in  cold  water,  followed  by  the 
use  of  the  flesh  brush.  He  was  punctilious  about  his 
toilet.  At  a  quarter  before  seven  he  had  family  prayers, 
and  at  seven  breakfasted,  always  taking  two  large  cups  of 
coffee  with  a  great  deal  of  sugar.  He  had  a  good  appetite, 
healthily  stimulated  by  the  varying  fare  of  the  changing 


114         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

seasons;  he  welcomed  the  new  vegetables  of  spring,  the 
fruits  of  autumn,  and  especially  the  first  hot  buckwheat 
cakes  in  winter  with  boyish  delight.  The  rest  of  the  morn- 
ing he  spent  in  his  study,  preparing  for  official  duties,  at- 
tending to  his  correspondence,  making  up  his  accounts,  and 
reading.  He  made  it  a  rule  to  read  daily  in  his  Greek 
Testament  and  in  some  solid  book,  preferably  of  divinity, 
and  generally  found  time  to  do  some  light  reading  beside, 
making  it  a  point  to  keep  up  with  the  news  of  the  day 
through  journals  and  reviews.  He  enjoyed  books  of 
humor,  particularly,  it  is  remembered,  as  a  hit  at  the 
Yankees,  Judge  Haliburton's  "Sam  Slick";  but  strangely 
enough  did  not  care  for  "Pickwick"  or  Dickens'  other 
books.  He  disapproved  of  Bulwer's  novels ;  his  repugnance 
to  that  meretricious  writer  resembled  the  sentiment  he  en- 
tertained toward  Lord  Byron.  When  strongly  urged,  on 
some  occasion,  to  read  a  novel  of  the  season,  he  refused. 
He  let  his  children  read  Scott's  romances,  but  not  too  many 
of  them  at  a  time,  fearing  lest  they  should  acquire  a  taste 
for  fiction.  He  cared  little  for  poetry,  even  for  Tennyson's 
or  for  Keble's  "Christian  Year";  strange  as  that  would 
seem,  were  we  not  aware  of  his  imaginative  deficiency. 

At  one  o'clock  he  dined  with  his  family  and  frequently 
had  guests,  for  he  cultivated  the  grace  of  hospitality,  which 
was  to  him  both  a  duty  and  pleasure,  and  made  indeed  a 
model  Episcopal  host.  In  memory  of  White,  he  always 
had  his  candidates  dine  with  him  immediately  after  their 
ordination.  His  house  became  a  gathering  place  for  the 
clergy,  and  he  entertained  distinguished  visitors  from  the 
East,  in  increasing  numbers  after  Nashotah  became  a  station 
on  the  railroad  between  Milwaukee  and  the  Mississippi. 
His  was  a  liberal  soul ;  and  so  simple  were  his  tastes  and  so 
perfect  was  his  economy  that  out  of  his  annual  missionary 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     115 

Stipend  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  he  was  able  to  give  largely 
to  struggling  missions  in  his  field ;  there  was  probably  no 
one  in  the  church  who  gave  away  more  in  proportion  to  his 
income  than  he.  He  hardl}-  ever  had  wine  upon  his  table, 
one  of  the  few  exceptions  being  Christmas  day,  which,  after 
he  had  formed  a  home  in  Wisconsin,  he  always  tried  to 
spend  with  his  family.  He  sometimes  drank  a  little  beer, 
but  weeks  and  months  would  often  pass  without  his  touch- 
ing it.  He  liked  desserts,  having  indeed  a  taste  for  sweets, 
as  he  had  also  for  bright  colors. 

After  dinner,  if  Aveather  permitted,  he  would  drive  for 
hours  or  ride  horseback,  for  he  never  acquired  the  habit  of 
taking  a  nap  in  the  afternoon.  He  liked  to  be  much  in  the 
open  air,  and  to  this  also  he  owed  the  firm  health  of  his 
maturer  years.  If  it  were  cold,  he  wrapped  himself  up 
well,  having  a  horror  of  being  chilled.  Yet  he  did  not 
suffer,  happily  for  one  who  had  to  be  exposed  in  all  weathers 
as  much  as  he,  from  extremes  of  temperature;  the  crisp 
cold  of  the  northwestern  winter  was  exhilarating  to  him. 
His  temperament  was  sanguine.  He  observed  natural  ob- 
jects with  an  attentive  eye,  and  taught  his  children  to  do 
the  same.  Yet  he  was  not  particularly  fond  of  animals, — 
never  made  a  pet  of  cat  or  dog,  for  instance, — though  he 
could  not  bear  to  see  them  suffer;  he  was  exceedingly, 
almost  morbidly  sensitive  about  having  any  horse,  cow,  calf, 
or  even  chicken  killed  on  his  place,  and  disliked  to  be  told 
of  it.  He  was  considerate  of  his  domestics,  and  they  re- 
vered and  delighted  to  serve  him.  He  preferred  to  help 
himself  as  much  as  possible ;  carried  his  own  portmanteau 
upon  his  travels ;  and  never  coveted  precedence  or  expected 
to  be  waited  upon.  The  terrible  problem  of  poverty  (save 
that  of  his  missionaries  and  their  families  !),  of  the  relation 
of  capital  and  labor,  did  not  force  itself  upon  his  notice  in 


116         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

that  environment  and  time,  but  his  view  of  the  source  of 
happiness  for  the  farm  hands  and  other  laborers  of  his  Httle 
community  shows  what  his  attitude  would  be :  he  believed 
that  if  in  all  the  relations  of  life  all  men  would  sincerely 
take  the  Lord's  prayer  upon  their  lips,  be  actuated  by  be- 
lief in  the  creed,  and  square  their  conduct  by  the  ten  com- 
mandments and  the  catechism — especially  that  part  of  it 
that  treats  of  one's  duty  to  one's  neighbor, — all  the  diffi- 
culties of  life  would  not  only  be  resolved  but  would  never 
arise;  and  who  can  deny  that  the  most  threatening  prob- 
lems of  crowded  factories  and  cities  would  yield  to  such 
treatment  ?  He  had  a  horror  of  debt  as  of  a  plague,  im- 
pressed it  upon  his  clergy,  and  earnestly  discountenanced 
ambitious  schemes  of  church  building  beyond  a  congrega- 
tion's means.  It  was  an  article  of  his  ethical  and  spiritual 
creed  to  make  payment  when  it  was  due ;  he  scrupulously 
avoided  getting  into  a  position  Avhere  he  might  have  to  be 
asked  for  it  twice.  In  all  financial  dealings  he  was  gov- 
erned by  that  old-fashioned  sense  of  self-respect,  honor,  in- 
dependence, manhood,  that  cannot  live  and  sponge  upon 
others  for  goods  or  service.  Connected  with  this  attribute 
was  his  conscientious  recognition  of  social  obligations ;  all 
through  his  busy  episcopate,  as  time  and  strength  permitted, 
he  was  particular  about  making  and  returning  calls. 

At  supper,  which  was  at  six  o'clock,  he  always  took  two 
large  cups  of  tea,  very  much  sweetened ;  and  afterward  sat 
and  talked  with  his  family  and  friends.  At  nine  he  had 
prayers,  and  retiring  immediately  after,  was  in  bed  by  ten. 
His  mode  of  life  and  mind  conduced  to  tired  nature's 
balmy  restorer ;  he  slept  without  waking  until  daybreak. 

Sunday  he  kept  as  a  day  of  holy  rest  and  refreshment, 
equally  removed  from  the  strictness  of  the  Presbyterian  and 
the  laxity  of  the  Romanist.     He  always  appeared  at  both 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     117 

morning  and  evening  services  ;  paid  pastoral  visits  to  the 
old  and  infirm  ;  and  gave  such  Christian  hospitality  as  did 
not  encroach  upon  his  servants'  rest.  He  never  read  news- 
papers on  that  day,  or  traveled  if  he  could  possibly  help 
it.  His  children  looked  back  to  the  Sundays  spent  with 
him  as  to  glimpses  of  paradise  on  earth ;  and  Christmas 
was  the  crown  of  all  the  year.  Every  Twelfth-night  he  en- 
tertained the  students  of  Nashotah. 

At  first  the  members  of  that  community,  to  the  number 
of  three  clerical  instructors  and  six  students,  were  all  ac- 
commodated in  one  small  frame  house  of  five  rooms,  that 
served  as  chapel,  lecture-hall,  library  and  dormitory  !  The 
kitchen  and  refectory  were  the  cabin  that  had  sheltered  the 
missionaries  upon  their  first  arrival.  The  frame  building 
was  known  as  the  Blue  House,  from  some  sky-blue  paint,  a 
present  to  the  mission,  with  which  it  was  covered.  In  a 
tiny  room,  where  only  four  persons  could  receive  at  a  time, 
the  holy  communion  was  administered.  The  problem  of 
accommodation  was  solved  in  a  larger  room  upstairs,  by 
having  five  bed-frames  hinged  upon  its  walls  so  that  they 
could  be  folded  up  by  day,  and  the  bedroom  be  thus  con- 
verted into  a  study.  The  men  slept  on  straw  pallets. 
Breck,  the  president  and  superior,  was  one  of  the  occupants 
of  this  room,  a  corner  of  which  was  his  office  and  study,  his 
desk  and  table  being  an  empty  box  set  on  end.  He  was  then 
the  presiding  genius  of  the  place.  The  key  to  his  character 
is  military  ;  he  was  by  nature  a  soldier,  by  grace  a  Chris- 
tian and  ecclesiastical  soldier ;  he  longed  for  discipline,  and 
was  only  happy  when  obeying  and  exercising  it.  His  tall 
figure,  in  cassock  and  girdle  (the  dress  adopted  by  the 
brothers),  reading  the  roll  call,  for  the  major  part  of  the  year 
before  daybreak,  by  lantern  light,  after  the  rousing  bell  had 
rung   out   from  an  old  oak-tree, — such  was  the  striking  pic- 


118         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ture  that  ever  after  haunted  the  memories  of  his  old 
pupils. 

The  community  lived  by  faith,  and  was  not  allowed  to 
suffer.  The  students  were  expected  to  do  at  least  four  hours 
of  outdoor  work  a  day.  One  of  them  served  as  cook,  others 
as  washermen,  and  of  their  exploits  in  the  former  line  especially 
amusing  anecdotes  used  to  be  told.  A  favorite  and  healthful 
mode  of  recreation  was  rowing  upon  the  lake.  On  Sundays 
they  were  all  engaged  in  lay  reading  at  villages  and  scattered 
farmhouses  for  many  miles  around.  After  a  chapel  was  built 
at  Nashotah,  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  came  to  worship 
there,  and  so  was  formed  the  parish  of  St.  Sylvanus. 

After  an  absence  of  a  year  and  a  half,  William  Adams 
returned  from  the  East,  to  the  relief  and  encouragement  of 
the  brethren,  stipulating  that  he  should  not  be  expected  in 
future  to  assume  the  business  management  of  the  house,  but 
should  be  left  free  to  devote  himself  to  educational  and  cler- 
ical functions.  Henceforth,  accordingly,  he  applied  himself 
to  inculcating  "  Pearson  on  the  Creed,"  an  ounce  of  which, 
he  was  used  to  say,  was  worth  a  pound  of  Paley.  His 
method  of  instruction  was  textual,  and  he  required  his 
students  to  commit  long  passages  to  memory. 

As  the  number  of  students  increased,  fresh  accommoda- 
tion was  needed,  and  a  shanty  was  raised  and  divided  by 
partitions  into  cells  seven  by  nine  feet  in  size.  Beside  the 
lake  a  baptistery  was  built,  whereat  the  sacrament  was  ad- 
ministered by  immersion. 

In  those  early  days  there  is  no  doubt  that  Nashotah  ex- 
cited widespread  and  extraordinary  interest  and  curiosity. 
Eminent  churchmen  came  a  long  way  to  visit  it,  among 
them  Kemper's  old  friend  and  Breck's  preceptor,  Dr. 
Muhlenberg,  who  was  accompanied  by  the  accomj)lished 
William  Ingraham  Kip,  then  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     119 

Albany.  Dr.  Kip  formed  with  the  young  head  of  Nashotah 
House  a  friendship  that  was  destined  to  have  important  con- 
sequences. Bishops  McCoskry  and  Upfold  were  frequent 
visitors.  To  Bishop  Kemper's  daughter,  who  spent  a  day 
there  in  the  summer  of  1845,  Nashotah  seemed  an  earthly 
paradise,  a  realization  of  the  idea  one  would  form  of  "the 
first  beginnings  of  one  of  the  pure  old  monasteries."  She 
was  particularly  impressed  by  Breck's  profoundly  reverential 
manner  at  the  time  of  the  early  celebration,  as  if  he  were 
"in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  God  whom  he  was  ad- 
dressing." The  altar  (no  communiontable!)  was  raised 
above  the  chancel  floor,  and  on  it  stood  a  large  cross  flanked 
by  vases  filled  with  white  flowers. 

Miss  Kemper  was  right ;  Nashotah  was  the  Clugny  of  the 
American  church  in  the  nineteenth  century.  And,  the  year 
of  her  visit,  a  derivative  idea  found  embodiment,  like  Ca- 
maldoli  amid  its  mountains,  at  Valle  Crucis,  in  Bishop  Ives' 
diocese  of  North  Carolina. 

To  many  worthy  people,  however,  like  the  old  lady, 
somewhat  mixed  in  her  ideas  or  expression,  who  confessed 
that  she  preferred  "  an  honest  pulpit,  with  legs  !  "  and  who 
balked  at  flowers  in  the  font  on  Easter  day,  for  fear  that 
they  inculcated  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  these 
doings  and  appointments  seemed  altogether  Romish  and 
wrong.  This  was  the  year  of  John  Henry  Newman's  seces- 
sion, when  suspicion  and  acrimonious  party  spirit  reached 
their  acme.  It  was  also  the  year  when  the  trial  of  Bishop 
Onderdonk  of  New  York  issued  in  his  suspension.  During 
that  painful  trial  of  his  old  schoolmate  and  college  class- 
mate Kemper's  hair  turned  perceptibly  grey;  he  felt  the 
scandal  and  disgrace  as  acutely  as  if  it  had  been  a  brother's. 
And  now  his  turn  came  to  suffer  personal  detraction  ;  all  the 
evidence  we  need  of  the  rancor  of  party  spirit  in  that  trou- 


120         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

blous  time  is  that  unkind  insinuations  were  circulated  touch- 
ing Kemper's  soundness  in  the  faith  !  In  a  circular  letter  to 
the  clergy  of  his  jurisdiction,  issued  in  the  winter  of  1846, 
he  directs  them  to  ' '  report  without  reserve  all  the  efforts  I 
have  made,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  influence  you  to  adopt 
peculiar  views  or  party  feelings. ' '  What  those  views  were 
appears  from  an  indignant  disclaimer,  in  reply,  from  the 
missionary  at  Laporte,  Indiana ;  an  article  had  appeared  in 
the  public  press  ' '  intimating,  or  rather  affirming,  that  the 
deficit  in  the  revenues  of  the  Church  for  domestic  missions 
was  owing  to  the  semi-papal  views  of  many  of  the  domestic 
missionaries."  From  the  chorus  of  denials  of  these  in- 
jurious insinuations  one  may  be  selected  as  a  type.  Dr. 
Killikelly  of  Vincennes  bore  witness  that  the  bishop's  "  un- 
obtrusive goodness  and  patient  endurance  of  fatigue  and 
privations  in  his  arduous  undertaking  have  gained  for  him 
the  high  esteem  and  admiration  of  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity. If  any  doctrine  has  had  the  preeminence  in  the 
sermons  that  we  have  listened  to  [from  him],  it  has  been  the 
great  doctrine  of  justification  through  faith  in  the  atonement 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  He  has,  on  all 
proper  occasions,  set  forth  and  contended  for  the  Church  as 
she  has  been  handed  down  to  us  from  the  Reformers." 

Like  his  friend  Muhlenberg,  Bishop  Kemper  had  in  the 
beginning  sympathized  with  the  Oxford  INIovement,  but  to- 
ward Rome  he  shared  in  full  measure  the  strong  feeling  of 
aversion  of  the  English  church  arid  nation.  As  to  partisan- 
ship, we  know  his  dislike  of  secular  politics,  and  as  regards 
the  ecclesiastical  species  his  sentiment  was  equally  strong  if 
not  stronger.  He  hated  and  abhorred  party  spirit  in  the 
church,  and  disliked  the  terms  "high"  and  "low."  The 
term  "broad,"  as  descriptive  of  a  type  of  churchmanship, 
was  not  in  vogue  until  after  1850.     As  to  any  exercise  of 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     121 

undue  influence  upon  his  clergy,  no  bishop  ever  abstained 
more  scrupulously  from  the  slightest  shadow  of  it.  He 
never  said  a  word  or  lifted  a  finger  to  influence  an  episcopal 
election,  such  as  Hawks's,  for  instance,  in  any  of  his  dioceses. 

The  attacks  upon  Nashotah  filled  him  with  sorrow  and 
apprehension,  and  he  hastened  to  its  defence  in  his  report 
for  1845  :  "  That  it  is  worthy  the  patronage  of  every  sound 
Churchman,  I  have  no  doubt.  In  thorough  training  upon 
the  truest  principles  of  the  Gospel,  as  a  religious  house, 
similar  to  those  of  primitive  days,  where  retirement  from  the 
world,  frequent  and  ardent  communion  with  God  through 
all  the  ordinances  of  his  Church,  industry,  hard  study, 
obedience,  and  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  will  be  duly  incul- 
cated ;  in  these  respects  it  will,  I  believe,  fully  realize,  if 
properly  cherished,  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  its 
best  friends.  Party  spirit,  and  the  topics  which  occasionally 
agitate  the  various  dioceses  of  our  country,  are  unknown 
there.     Simply  to  the  Church  they  chng." 

This  last  sentence  was  exceedingly  infelicitous  as  an 
apology, — a  seeming  justification  of  the  charge  of  the  ene- 
mies of  the  school  that  in  its  devotion  to  the  church  its  grip 
upon  the  cross  was  relaxed  ;  that  the  tendency  of  its  teach- 
ing was  to  substitute  dependence  upon  rites  and  ceremonies 
for  the  interior  operation  of  divine  grace  and  personal  re- 
ligion. 

In  an  address  to  the  diocesan  convention  of  Wisconsin, 
the  bishop  enlarged  upon  the  need  of  long  and  thorough 
trial  of  the  motives,  ability  and  acquirements  of  candidates 
for  holy  orders,  for  lack  of  which  many  have  afterward  in- 
jured and  disgraced  the  fold.  The  clergy  have  to  encounter 
"  the  strongest  minds,  ignorant  of  the  sublimest  truths,  per- 
verted by  every  species  of  error.  "What  knowledge  of  man- 
kind, and  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  what  faith,  meekness,  and 


122         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

perseverance  are  necessary  to  bring  such  men  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Gospel!  "  And  he  urged  all  candidates  to 
go  to  Nashotah,  where  "  the  discipline  and  instruction  have 
been  so  correct." 

The  diocesan  committee  on  the  state  of  the  church  re- 
ported that  that  school  had  at  times  been  unjustly  reputed 
unsound  in  the  true  Protestant  faith. 

On  another  occasion  the  bishop  declared  that  "the  sons 
of  Nashotah  have  never  wavered  in  their  allegiance  and  de- 
votion to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church," — but  such  boast- 
ing went  before  a  fall :  immediately  afterward  it  became  a 
humiliating  necessity  to  announce  the  deposition  of  William 
Markoe  for  Romanizing  errors.  Markoe  was  a  scion  of  a 
rich  and  fashionable  family  of  Philadelphia.  He  studied  at 
Nashotah,  and  after  finishing  his  course  at  the  General 
Seminary,  returned  thither  as  chaplain.  He  built  a  church 
in  the  adjoining  village  of  Delafield,  and  furnished  its  altar 
with  elegant  ecclesiastical  embroideries  brought  from  Eng- 
land. His  submission  to  Rome  caused  Kemper  "deep  and 
unfeigned  sorrow." 

A  certain  Gardner  Jones  imposed  upon  the  authorities  of 
the  school  and  was  appointed  professor  of  Hebrew,  but  com- 
ing under  suspicion,  and  charged  with  being  a  Roman 
priest,  he  suddenly  withdrew  to  a  Romish  seminary  in 
Indiana. 

Episodes  like  these,  and  the  unfortunate  fact  that,  beside 
Markoe,  five  sometime  students  at  Nashotah  went  (to  adapt 
an  expressive  westernism)  the  whole  Roman  hog,  were  glee- 
fully greeted  by  assailants  of  the  institution  as  complete 
justification  of  the  suspicions  that  from  the  first  they  had  en- 
tertained. 

In  this  relation,  Breck's  opinion  of  Newman's  perversion 
is  of  interest ;  he  held  that  it  was  a  proof  of  the  want  of  true 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     123 

Catholicity  in  the  Anglican  communion,  whence  yet  it  was 
cowardice  to  run  away.  It  is  said  that  Breck's  fraternal 
biographer  did  not  lay  all  the  evidence  before  the  public, — 
evidence  that  would  show  that  there  was  a  time  when  the 
president  of  Nashotah  House  himself  was  on  the  verge  of 
perversion. 

Under  the  pressure  of  these  agitations,  Bishop  Kemper 
was  forced  to  assume  a  position  that  admitted  of  no  misun- 
derstanding, and  to  adopt  a  tone,  in  instruction,  admonition 
and  condemnation,  of  unwonted  severity.  He  lectured  on 
"the  scriptural  principles  of  the  reformation  of  the  Church 
of  England,"  lauding  "the  glorious  martyrs,  Ridley,  Cran- 
mer,  and  Latimer  ;  .  .  .  our  great  and  glorious  English 
reformers,  whose  blood  enriched  the  Church."  He  called 
upon  the  Wisconsin  clergy  to  rally  around  their  "primitive 
symbols,  evangelical  worship,  and  admirable  articles,"  all 
needed  in  the  present  time  quite  as  much  as  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  all  "wonderfully  and  delightfully  conformed  "  to  the 
inspired  volume.  "I  am  exceedingly  solicitous,"  he  said, 
"that  as  a  diocese  you  take  a  right-minded  and  conservative 
stand  amid  the  agitations  that  now  disturb  our  Zion.  Avoid 
party  spirit,  often  as  rancorous  as  it  is  groundless,  and  nour- 
ished by  mischievous  beings  who  attack  with  virulence  what- 
ever is  not  conformed  to  their  imperfect  views,  and  revile 
church  members  in  religious  papers.  ...  I  beseech 
you,  let  no  party  spirit  exist  among  us."  He  warned  them 
that  "a  corrupt  church  is  using  every  effort  to  bewitch  the 
world  by  her  sorceries.  .  .  .  The  soul-destroying  errors 
of  Mormonism  and  infidelity  are  prevailing,  and  those  of 
Rome  and  rationalism  are  applauded,  and  dealers  with  fa- 
miliar and  diabolical  spirits  are  often  to  be  met  with."  He 
denounced  "  the  blasphemies  of  Rome ;  .  .  .  the  dark 
designs,  Jesuitical  practices,  idolatrous  rites,  and  unfounded 


124         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

claims  "  of  the  Roman  church  ;  her  friendship  is  "  death  to 
our  hopes,  and  our  most  formidable  evil."  Yet  some  have 
fallen  into  ' '  her  more  than  Egyptian  bondage ;  .  .  . 
bright  but  perverted  intellects  flee  to  this  refuge  of  lies." 

Whitehouse  believed  in  the  "  martyr  witness  of  the  Wal- 
denses  and  Wicklifife,"  and  the  "vigorous  and  productive 
protest  "  of  the  Reformation  ;  Vail  deplored  "  the  fatal  cor- 
ruptions and  idolatries  of  the  Romish  communion  ;  "  and 
Chase  was  very  bold :  he  enjoined  upon  his  clergy  to 
"avoid  the  traps  of  new  doctrines ;  wild  schemes  of  salva- 
tion on  the  one  hand,  and  the  piebald  fripperies  of  Roman- 
izing tendencies  on  the  other;"  assuring  them  that  as  he 
traveled  about  Illinois  he  encountered  many  "Jesuits  and 
other  Romanists,  whose  object  it  is  to  corrupt  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints,  .  .  .  and  to  subjugate  America 
to  the  papal  power."  Hence  the  importance  of  united  effort 
among  all  Protestants,  to  guard  against  a  threatened  relapse 
into  the  "  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  dark  ages."  He 
was  roused  to  a  pitch  of  indignation  by  an  impudent  invita- 
tion to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  to  turn  Romish : 
"martyrs  died,"  he  retorted,  "rather  than  own  the  cor- 
rupted creed  of  the  Romish  church,  or  submit  to  the  usur- 
pations of  her  self-created  pontiff."  We  look  up  to  the 
throne  of  God,  not  to  the  chair  of  the  pope ;  we  should 
"commit  a  great  sin  by  acknowledging  an  earthly  spiritual 
monarch,  in  calling  the  pope  our  master,  when  Jesus  Christ 
is  our  only  universal  Bishop,  as  he  and  he  only  was  such  to 
the  Apostles  and  first  Bishops  of  the  Church."  It  is  a  sug- 
gestion "repugnant  to  our  consciences  and  abhorrent  to  our 
feelings.  Rome  is  a  precipice  including  the  gulf  that  is 
beneath  her;  'approximations  to  Rome  '  are  not  innocent: 
it  is  a  sin  to  think  of  her  idolatrous  practices  without  abhor- 
rence ;  to  look  upon  her  with  complacency  is  adultery  of  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     125 

heart.  But  Rome  is  said  to  be  changed  now.  Where  is  the 
proof?  Can  infallibility  change?  [By  this  claim]  she  hath 
incarcerated  herself  in  error  and  thrown  the  key  away." 
Her  mass  is  idolatrous  ;  her  gaudy  trappings  were  plucked 
from  heathenism.  He  deplored  the  sophistry  of  modem 
apologists  for  the  church  of  Rome;  a  disposition  "tore- 
form  the  Reformation"  was  at  work  in  the  Episcopal 
church, — whereas  ''to  be  in  the  Church  with  Romish  senti- 
ments is  a  crime." 

The  severity  of  these  expressions  gave  umbrage  to  many ; 
but  shortly  after  their  utterance,  Newman's  lapse  silenced  all 
criticism. 

A  glance  at  the  experience  of  the  Roman  intruders  into 
Chase's  diocese  is  instructive.  One  of  the  earliest  priests 
that  appeared  in  Chicago  was  a  deep-drinking  Irishman 
named  O'Meara;  "a  notorious  scoundrel,"  exclaimed  one 
of  his  own  order  :  "  may  God  preserve  Chicago  from  such 
a  priest !  "  It  soon  became  necessary  to  have  a  bishop  on 
the  spot,  and  in  1844  an  Irishman  named  William  Quarter 
was  consecrated  for  the  new  see,  and  began  to  build  a 
cathedral,  college  and  female  seminary ;  but  O'Meara  and 
his  tactics  made  his  life  a  burden,  and  after  four  years  of 
contention,  Bishop  Quarter  gave  up  the  ghost.  He  was 
succeeded  by  a  Jesuit,  who  proved  unequal  to  the  situation, 
and  was  shortly  transferred  to  Natchez,  where  he  had  all  the 
time  he  wanted  for  reflection.  The  next  bishop,  O'Regan, 
was  accused  of  arbitrary  conduct,  and  was  in  perpetual  con- 
troversy with  his  subordinates  and  with  prominent  laymen ; 
three  priests  abandoned  his  diocese,  and  within  six  years  from 
his  appointment  he  sought  peace  by  resignation.  His  suc- 
cessor, James  Duggan,  was  selected  because  of  his  concilia- 
tory disposition ;  he  was  devout,  amiable,  and  of  cultivated 
mind.     He  had  endeared  himself  to  the  whole  community, 


126         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

not  only  to  both  clergy  and  laity  of  his  own  communion  but  to 
Protestants  as  well, — when  the  strange  discovery  was  made 
that  his  mind  was  affected  (it  may  shrewdly  be  suspected 
that  his  malady  was  a  liberal  spirit),  and  he  was  suddenly 
and  silently  removed.  Meantime,  revolted  priests  were 
much  in  evidence  as  popular  lecturers,  exposing  the  secret 
processes  of  the  Roman  machine,  and  being  assaulted  by 
Catholic  mobs. 

Such  was  the  peace  of  the  church  whither  "  bright  but 
perverted  intellects"  fled  for  infallibility.  For  this  experience 
was  not  local  or  peculiar,  but  was  a  type  and  summary  of 
the  history  of  the  papal  communion  in  America.  Quarrels 
about  property,  quarrels  of  bishops  and  priests,  of  priests 
and  people,  of  people  with  their  bishops  over  the  removal  of 
popular  or  retention  of  unpopular  priests,  make  up  the 
staple  of  the  history  of  the  collision  of  mediaeval  hierarchical 
claims  with  the  American  spirit. 

Our  picture  of  Bishop  Kemper's  environment  would  be 
materially  lacking  did  we  not  interpret  his  reference  to  Mor- 
monism.  That  strange  religious  hybrid,  an  unnatural  com- 
pound of  Judaism,  Mohammedanism,  and  anthropomorphic 
polytheism,  with  its  baptismal  immersion,  its  visions,  proph- 
ecies, miracles,  faith  cures  and  gift  of  tongues,  left  its 
trail  all  over  the  northwest  in  the  very  years  of  which  we  are 
treating.  Ousted  from  Ohio  and  Illinois,  it  ramified  in  Mis- 
souri, Iowa,  and  Wisconsin,  being  introduced  into  the  last 
named  territory  in  1844  by  one  James  Strang,  who  took  to 
himself  five  wives  and  set  up  his  latter-day  monarchy  on  an 
island  in  Lake  Michigan.  Bishop  Chase  mourned  the 
delusion,  which  seduced  many  English  immigrants  from  the 
church.  Having  been  inquired  of  about  the  validity  of  its 
baptism,  he  burst  out :  "  Have  I  lived  to  see  the  day  when 
Mormon  baptism  is  put  on  a  par  with    other  dissenters'  ?  " 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     127 

Joseph  Smith  he  characterized  as  "  a  second  Mahomet,  a  false 
prophet,  who  is  deceiving  his  thousands  ;  "  his  revelation  is 
a  lie,  like  the  Koran,  a  dreadful  imposture,  ruining  immor- 
tal souls.  Such  apostasy  is  denounced  in  the  Bible,  and  is 
darker  than  schism.  Submission  to  Mormon  baptism  is  sin, 
to  be  repented  of;  Smith's  baptism  is  null  and  void,  no 
matter  what  form  of  words  is  used ;  it  is  even  worse  than 
nothing,   for  it  is  sin,  God's  name  being  taken  in  it  in  vain. 

Jubilee  College  matters  take  up  much  space  in  Chase's  re- 
ports. More  professorships  were  needed,  also  scholarships 
for  candidates  for  the  ministry, — as  experience  showed  that 
the  wealthy  would  not  give  their  sons  to  God  and  that  the 
willing  had  no  means.  In  1845  he  had  the  pleasure  of  re- 
porting a  clergy  list  of  more  than  twenty  names  in  Illinois, 
seven  churches  ready  for  consecration,  classes  numbering 
nearly  fifty  students  at  Jubilee,  and  thirty-five  scholarships, 
obtained  on  a  recent  begging  tour  in  New  York  and  New 
England.  By  the  year  1847  he  had  become  so  infirm 
that  he  had  to  be  seated  while  preaching ;  yet  his  candidate 
for  an  assistant  bishopric  was  rejected  at  general  convention 
by  a  close  party  vote,  so  widespread  was  the  prejudice 
against  his  administration  as  "self-willed."  It  had  con- 
tributed, nevertheless,  to  form  a  better  public  sentiment 
throughout  the  great  commonwealth,  at  whose  birth  anti- 
christian  influences  had  presided.  For  some  time  all  college 
charters  granted  by  the  legislature  of  Illinois  contained  a 
clause  prohibiting  the  inculcation  of  any  creed ;  but  in  the 
year  just  mentioned,  after  some  difficulty,  Bishop  Chase  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  a  charter  for  Jubilee  without  the  obnox- 
ious clause ;  and  in  July  he  presided  at  its  first  commence- 
ment, at  which  five  of  its  students  received  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  arts. 

In  1849,  Robert  Harper  Clarkson,  having  passed  through 


128         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

college  at  Gettysburg,  and  having  finished  his  preparation 
for  holy  orders  under  Bishop  Whittingham's  supervision  and 
been  ordered  deacon  by  him,  accepted  a  call  to  the  charge 
of  St.  James'  Church,  Chicago.  At  the  time  of  his  arrival 
there,  the  city  was  still  only  an  overgrown  village,  though  it 
claimed  twenty-five  thousand  inhabitants.  Its  streets  were 
still  roads,  a  few  of  which  boasted  plank  sidewalks  along 
part  of  their  length  ;  there  were  no  public  conveyances,  no 
gaslights,  no  sewers ;  until  within  a  short  time  before  hogs 
had  run  at  large  in  the  streets.  That  very  year  it  suffered  a 
fearful  visitation  of  cholera;  Clarkson  showed  of  what  mettle 
he  was  made  by  his  care  of  the  plague  stricken ;  and  he 
won  the  heart  of  the  community. 

The  reader  will  be  able  to  understand,  perhaps  to  share. 
Bishop  Kemper's  "utter  astonishment"  at  the  news  that  in 
1845  Kemper  College  was  closed.  The  debt  before  men- 
tioned had  rolled  up  to  twelve,  or  according  to  one  estimate 
sixteen,  thousand  dollars  ;  no  relief  could  be  looked  for  in 
St.  Louis,  where  the  churches  were  all  in  debt ;  the  faculty 
had  been  just  supported  for  a  year  by  the  tuition  fees,  and 
had  such  faith  in  the  institution  that  they  offered  to  conduct 
it  for  another  term  with  no  other  salary  than  such  fees  sup- 
plied ;  but  the  trustees  felt  bound  to  close  its  doors.  A  fatal 
decision,  for  while  there  was  as  much  life  in  it  as  the  faculty 
manifested  there  was  hope;  the  students  were  doing  well 
and  would  have  disseminated  interest ;  and  there  was  every 
probability  that  some  one  would  come  to  its  relief  and  save 
a  property  (at  the  present  day  of  fabulous  value)  for  the 
church, — but  after  the  teaching  force  had  been  dissolved  the 
difficulty  of  a  revival  became  insuperable.  For  a  time  the 
building  was  used  as  the  county  courthouse.  Its  loss  was 
a  terrible  blow  to  the  diocese  of  Missouri,  in  which  at  the 
time  it  engendered  much  ill  feeling,  and  which  was  affected 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     129 

by  it  through  all  the  coming  years  in  ways  impossible 
fully  to  estimate.  Bishop  Kemper  was  never  after  able  to 
allude  to  it  without  tears  in  his  eyes.  Of  course  it  was 
complained  that  Bishop  Hawks  had  not  exerted  himself  as 
he  might  have  done  to  save  the  school ;  and  it  is  a  fact  that 
his  interest  was  absorbed  in  a  proposed  mission,  of  itinerat- 
ing and  educational  type  like  Nashotah,  for  which  a  hun- 
dred acres  of  land,  shortly  increased  to  upward  of  three 
hundred  acres,  were  given  him.  The  people  of  Palmyra, 
by  their  liberality,  manifested  such  zeal  in  behalf  of  the 
new  institution  that  it  was  located  in  their  midst,  in  1848, 
under  the  title  of  St.  Paul's  College. 

The  summer  of  1845  was  intensely  hot  and  told  on 
Kemper's  strength  ;  the  following  winter  was  intensely  cold ; 
and  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1846  were  humid  and  sickly. 
The  sufferings  of  the  missionaries,  their  wives  and  children, 
were  severe,— sufferings,  it  was  said,  of  which  the  church 
triumphant  would  know  though  the  militant  church  never 
could,  and  indeed  seemed  not  to  care  about.  The  zeal  of 
the  former  decade  had  grown  cold ;  there  was  a  manifest 
decline  of  interest  in  the  western  mission  field ;  people  were 
weary  of  annually  repeated  appeals  for  aid,  and  thought 
that  after  ten  years  more  missions  and  dioceses  should  have 
become  self-supporting.  Yet  in  those  trying  years  many  a 
worthy  minister  tasted  the  uttermost  bitterness  of  poverty; 
one  had  to  subsist,  with  his  family,  upon  a  diet  of  potatoes, 
and  another's  wife  was  without  shoes.  In  their  extremity 
they  would  borrow  of  each  other's  little  stores,  not  wishing 
and  not  able  to  apply  to  the  world,  which  demanded  the 
exorbitant  interest  on  loans  of  twelve  per  cent,  per  annum. 
Bishop  Kemper  candidly  confessed  that,  though  not  in  de- 
spair, even  his  cheerful  spirit  was  cast  down ;  and  Chase 
declared,  in  his  downright  way,  that  the  suffering  of  the 


130         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

clergy  through  breach  of  promises  made  to  encourage  them 
to  turn  to  the  West  as  missionaries  was  bringing  the  good 
faith  and  moral  character  of  the  church  into  question.  The 
problem  of  clerical  support  pressed  with  equal  weight  upon 
Whitehouse,  his  successor  in  the  see  of  Illinois ;  indeed,  from 
the  ever  intensifying  strain  of  admonition,  entreaty,  expostu- 
lation and  denunciation  that  runs  through  his  addresses  one 
would  infer  that  the  situation  was  steadily  growing  worse. 
An  experience  of  only  two  years  was  enough  to  convince 
him  that,  as  a  rule,  salaries  in  that  diocese  were  not  only 
disproportionately  low  in  comparison  with  ministers'  services 
but  were  even  insufficient  for  their  necessary  expenses,  their 
material  needs ;  while  salaries  that  had  once  been  fair,  but 
remained  the  same  while  the  cost  of  living  had  increased, 
were  thereby  rendered  equivalent  to  a  positive  reduction. 
The  voluntary  system,  Whitehouse  continued,  is  sometimes 
regarded  as  permitting  breach  of  promise  of  support  and 
non-payment  of  subscriptions.  It  were  a  sad  hour  if  this 
dependence  on  the  religious  sense  of  the  country  were  found 
insufficient  or  misplaced.  Some  ministers  are  almost  starv- 
ing ;  and  what  of  their  future  and  that  of  their  families  ? 
"They  are  ground  down  to  the  veriest  pittance,  and  life's 
heartiness,  dignity,  affection  and  power  are  shrunk  and 
withered  by  the  shifts  of  poverty,"  in  times  of  unprece- 
dented commercial  prosperity.  Certain  of  the  laity  who 
came  West  poor,  a  few  years  since,  and  are  now  rich  to  re- 
pletion, think  that  they  have  done  all  that  can  be  expected 
of  them  if  they  pay  the  rent  of  a  pew.  Continual  changes 
of  place  made  by  ministers,  so  deleterious  to  the  progress 
of  the  church,  are  owing  to  the  "bad  faith  of  the  laity  in 
pecuniary  provision."  Year  by  year  he  returned  to  the 
charge,  deploring  "  the  galling  bondage  imposed  by  cares  of 
worldly  maintenance  on  the  spiritual  energies.     ...     It 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     131 

is  mere  mockery  to  preach  to  such  [sufferers]  against  '  the 
love  of  money. '  A  brawny,  ignorant  laborer  delves  as  much 
from  a  ditch.  The  ministry  is  free  from  the  spirit  of  covet- 
ousness." 

Years  before,  Chase  had  singled  out  wealth  as  the  popular 
idol  and  covetousness  as  the  besetting  sin  of  the  ^^'est ;  yet 
all,  he  said,  "  are  very  jealous  of  the  affections  of  the  clergy 
in  this  respect,  and  fain  will  starve  their  bodies  to  save  their 
souls. ' ' 

"The  demand  for  ability  in  the  ministry  is  at  its  max- 
imum, the  means  of  securing  or  rewarding  it  at  a  minimum," 
Whitehouse  concluded ;  and  later,  in  a  tone  embittered  by 
the  injustice  and  impiety  of  such  dealings,  he  exposed  the 
fact  that  many  a  salary  was  a  speculation  on  a  preacher's 
ability  to  draw  a  crowd,  and  if  he  failed,  pledges  were 
broken,  irrelevant  faults  would  then  be  imputed  to  him,  and 
finally  he  would  be  ousted  from  his  place. 

"  Our  clergy,"  said  Clarkson,  "do  not  as  a  rule  receive 
what  is  sufficient  for  their  needs  or  what  is  commensurate 
with  the  means  of  their  congregations."  Most  parishes  de- 
termine salaries  according  to  the  least  they  can  offer  instead 
of  the  most  they  can  raise ;  and  lack  of  heart  among  the 
clergy,  frequent  changes,  and  long  parochial  vacancies  are 
the  result.  This,  however,  one  may  say  in  passing,  is  far 
better  than  to  make  liberal  promises,  largely  based  on  the 
estimated  contents  of  a  clergyman's  private  purse,  or  that 
of  his  wife,  or  having  made  them,  to  pay  according  to  his 
supposed  actual  expenditure  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Bishops  shared  the  penury  of  their  clergy.  In  beginning 
his  work,  Kemper  impressed  upon  the  people  of  his  juris- 
diction the  importance  of  starting  funds  for  the  support  of 
diocesan  bishops;  but,  a  dozen  years  after  his  appeal, 
Upfold  was  in  receipt  of  an  episcopal  salary  of  one  hun- 


132         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

dred  dollars  a  year.  His  salary  as  rector  of  St.  John's 
Church,  Lafayette,  was  six  hundred  dollars,  out  of  which 
he  had  to  pay  three  hundred  for  an  assistant.  The  in- 
adequate support  of  his  clergy  was  the  burden  of  Up- 
fold's  addresses:  "Many  receive  little  more  annually 
than  the  wages  of  an  ordinary  day-laborer,  and  some 
not  so  much."  The  common  and  stereotyped  plea,  in 
extenuation,  is  that  of  "  hard  times  "  ;  but  these,  if  hard  to 
the  laity,  are  harder  still  to  the  clergy.  There  is  ability  to 
remedy  this  bad  state  of  affairs,  if  not  by  money,  at  least  by 
providing  the  necessaries  of  life.  He  adduced,  as  a  warning, 
the  fact  that  God  can  and  often  does  take  away  means  that 
are  abused  to  purposes  of  "  personal  and  selfish  gratification 
only ;  "  and  besought  the  people  at  least  to  pay  their  min- 
ister's pittance  punctually,  for  neglect  of  this  simple  busi- 
ness principle,  mournfully  common  in  this  particular  rela- 
tion, was  the  cause  of  serious  embarrassment  to  the  helpless 
clergy  and  harassing  and  unjust  suspicions  among  their 
creditors. 

It  is  melancholy  to  contemplate  the  underlying  stratum 
of  human  suffering  in  which  the  bases  of  all  the  western 
dioceses  were  laid.  But  it  gives  the  right  perspective  to 
know  that  these  ills  were  by  no  means  peculiar  to  church- 
men :  a  devoted  Presbyterian  missionary,  who  in  the  course 
of  his  career  organized  twenty-eight  congregations,  did  not 
receive  from  his  people  for  the  first  six  years  of  his  work 
the  amount  of  Upfold's  episcopal  salary  for  the  first  year. 

Everywhere  there  was  crying  need  of  a  "  Make-congre- 
gations-/rt_>'-what-they-voluntaril  y-/r^w/V^-society. ' ' 

Distressing  as  it  was,  the  situation  would  have  been  in- 
tolerable but  for  the  efforts  of  Christian  women,  who,  not 
having  the  money  they  wished  to  give,  earned  it  by  the 
sacrifice  of  time,  material,  and  skilled  labor,  and  turned  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     133 

proceeds  over  to  vestries  to  complete  the  purchase  of  build- 
ing lots,  the  building  and  then  the  furnishing  of  churches, 
and  to  pay  arrears  of  ministers'  salaries.  Sales  of  eatables 
and  fancy  work  are  no  doubt  a  frontier  method  and  not  the 
most  dignified  means  of  ecclesiastical  support,  and  the  mo- 
tives of  the  buyers,  while  certainly  not  bad,  may  not  be 
the  highest, — but  none  can  impugn  the  purity  of  motive 
of  the  kindly  earners,  evidences  of  whose  zeal  are  plenti- 
fully scattered  through  the  early  records  of  the  dioceses  of 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa. 

In  explanation  of  the  long  drawn  and  bitter  indictments 
of  financial  dishonor  brought  against  their  people  by  the 
pioneer  bishops,  one  must  frankly  accept  the  statement  that 
in  the  West,  both  northwest  and  southwest,  a  quite  different 
standard  of  financial  honor  from  that  of  the  long-settled 
East  was  in  possession  of  the  field, — a  standard  to  which 
men  like  Kemper,  Whitehouse  and  Upfold  could  not  accus- 
tom or  reconcile  themselves.  The  debtor  and  creditor  legis- 
lation of  American  commonwealths,  says  the  author  of 
"The  Winning  of  the  West,"  is  not  pleasant  reading  for 
one  who  is  or  would  fain  be  proud  of  his  country.  The 
reader  would  do  well  to  peruse  again  the  opening  pages  of 
this  chapter,  descriptive  of  frontier  conditions,  with  reference 
to  their  bearing  upon  the  subject  in  hand  ;  remembering 
this  rule,  that  pioneer  traits  persist  as  survivals  in  the  place 
of  their  origin.  Religion  was  not  a  motive  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  West.  European  and  English  ideals  were  de- 
spised ;  English  immigrants  fell  away  from  the  communion 
of  the  church.  The  influence  of  the  past  and  all  authority 
seemed  a  hateful  and  ridiculous  bondage.  The  West,  re- 
marked Whitehouse,  is  new,  impetuous,  defiant ;  pioneering 
as  if  nothing  social  or  religious  were  settled.  A  curious 
and  interesting  indication  of  the  independent  temper  of  the 


134         AN  ATOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

people  has  been  recorded  :  it  was  practically  impossible  to 
induce  them  to  kneel  in  public  worship.  There  existed  no 
reverence  for  the  ministry  as  of  divine  appointment;  the 
estimation  in  which  it  was  held  was  betrayed  by  the  expres- 
sion which  often  struck  unpleasantly  upon  Whitehouse's 
ears:  "to  hire  a  minister."  It  was  an  inclement  climate 
for  episcopal  prerogative ;  an  anecdote  which  if  it  be  not  true 
is  at  least  well  invented  is  told  of  a  burly  Irishman  who 
had  some  business  with  Bishop  Upfold,  who  answered  his 
rap  at  the  door:  "Is  Misther  Upfold  in?"  "Sir,  the 
Bishop  of  Indiana  is  before  you  !  "  Quick  as  thought  the 
visitor  turned  on  his  heel-  "  Och,  and  now  he's  behoind 
me  !  " 

Enough  has  been  said  of  the  miasma  of  infidelity  and  ma- 
terialism, and  the  incessant  shifting  of  the  population  of  the 
frontier,  which  had  such  a  depressing  effect  on  all  religion, 
and  of  the  intense  individualism,  profound  ignorance  and 
bitter  prejudices  of  the  sects,  that  operated  so  adversely  to 
the  church's  progress.  The  immigrant  sought  no  continuing 
city,  came  without  thought  of  making  a  permanent  home, 
formed  no  local  attachments ;  in  Chicago,  it  was  said,  a  minis- 
ter was  the  pastor  of  a  procession.  This  continual  moving 
about  and  solution  of  ties  was  highly  injurious  to  domestic 
and  religious  feeling.  Vail  pointed  out  that  the  two  chief 
perils  of  the  spiritual  life  in  a  new  country  were  business  and 
pleasure :  the  hurry  to  get  rich,  the  fever  of  speculation, 
and  the  rush  for  amusement,  afforded  by  traveling  concert 
and  theatre  troupes,  shows  of  all  sorts,  the  circus,  horse- 
races and  balls.  Bovine  comfort  in  the  sense  alone,  re- 
lieved by  a  little  excitement  once  in  a  while,  was  the  low 
ideal  of  the  masses,  while  even  harder  to  reach  and  influence 
was  tlie  class  of  honest,  virtuous,  moral  citizens,  many  of  them 
benevolent,  and  some  among  them  readers  of  the  Bible,  who 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     135 

were  members  of  no  religious  body  and  felt  no  need  of  sal- 
vation. 

The  conclusion  is  inevitable  that,  however  it  were,  the 
church  and  western  society  were  ill  adjusted  in  that  day. 
The  populace  was  devoid  of  "the  church  idea";  our 
"Catholic  heritage,"  historic  episcopate  or  apostolical  suc- 
cession, and  "incomparable  liturgy"  did  not  appeal  to  it 
in  the  least.  A  popular  objection  to  the  prayer-book  service 
was  its  sameness,  day  after  day.  Of  course  it  was  easy  to 
rejoin  that  it  was  positively  too  reverent  and  devotional  in 
tone  and  spirit  for  an  irreverent  and  undevout  multitude 
and  age.  But  it  would  manifest  only  proper  humility  if, 
before  seeking  to  shift  the  whole  onus  upon  a  reprobate  age, 
church  people  were  to  ask  themselves  if  they  may  not  have 
been  a  little  in  fault,  a  little  too  self-complacent,  too  quick 
to  take  offence  at  irregular  zeal,  too  narrowly  devoted  to  our 
order  and  forms, — in  a  word,  too  restrained  and  exclusive 
of  emotion ;  making  an  idol  of  conformity,  "dying  of  dig- 
nity." It  is  always  well  to  see  ourselves  as  others  see  us ; 
and  to  the  Methodists,  for  example,  the  "old  church"  still 
seemed,  mistakenly,  of  course,  to  be  the  petrifaction  that  it 
had  been  in  the  latitudinarian  age. 

Many  reasons  have  been  alleged  for  the  parsimony  of 
church  people  in  supporting  their  ministers.  The  extra  ex- 
pense of  providing  an  episcopal  salary  is  adduced  as  a 
burden  of  taxation  unknown  to  presbyterian  and  congrega- 
tional polities.  Then  it  is  said  that  Episcopalians  have  a  rela- 
tively high  standard  of  living  to  sustain, — that  a  relatively 
large  proportion  of  their  means  is  consumed  in  social  and 
general  culture,  which  is  by  no  means  necessarily  worldly 
and  self-indulgent ;  and  so  far  as  it  goes  to  maintain  a  fine 
ideal  of  human  life,  the  finest  that  our  country  has  to  exhibit, 
one  would   not   quarrel   with    such   expenditure, — but  the 


136         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

harmony  of  piety  and  culture,  because  it  is  so  fair  an  ideal, 
is  hard  to  realize,  and  if  the  former  quality  be  Avanting  the 
latter  will  not  long  be  distinguishable  from  worldliness  ;  we 
must  acknowledge,  with  compunction,  that  church  people 
are  involved,  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  in  social  entangle- 
ments, fashion  and  luxury,  with  corresponding  decay  and 
extinction  of  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  which  is  the  spirit  of 
missions.  And  the  ebbing  away  of  interest  in  a  congrega- 
tion, first  from  foreign,  then  from  domestic,  diocesan  and 
finally  parochial  missions,  is  accompanied  by  internal  dis- 
sensions and  falling  off  in  attendance  on  public  worship,  and 
that  by  reduction  of  the  minister's  salary,  and  increase  of 
selfishness  and  meanness  in  the  homes  of  the  parishioners, 
the  spirit  of  avarice  throttling  the  spirit  of  Christian  love. 
Such  progressive  shrinkage  of  spirituality  is  the  melancholy 
explanation  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  many  a  parish.  "  Spir- 
itual awakening,"  it  has  been  truly  said,  "  and  the  setting 
free  of  money  to  do  the  Lord's  work,  stand  to  each  other 
as  cause  and  effect."  And  here  it  is  to  be  pointed  out  that 
the  relatively  high  degree  of  mental  culture  among  Episco- 
palians prevents  them  from  being  moved,  a  thousand  as  one 
man,  by  appeals  to  the  emotions  such  as  carry  Methodist 
and  Baptist  assemblies,  for  example,  off  their  feet,  and  lead 
to  triumphs  of  liberality  that  darken  the  offerings  of  church- 
men, whose  inbred  conservatism  and  knowledge  of  the 
world  make  them  suspicious  of  new  enterprises  and  fervent 
appeals,  and  induce  an  habitual  trial  of  motives.  Sad  ex- 
perience makes  many  of  them  sceptical  about  schemes  of 
endowment,  so  apt  to  go  agley  through  careless  investment 
and  misapplication.  But  in  the  early  day  in  the  north- 
west, beside  the  actual  want  of  capital,  the  character  of 
many  of  the  clergy  was  a  sufficient  reason  for  their  lack  of 
remuneration.     Clerical  incompetents  and  adventurers  who 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     137 

had  failed  in  the  East  went  West  to  improve  their  fortunes. 
All  denominations  suffered  from  this  cause ;  we  catch  com- 
plaints from  Presbyterians  of  "hireling  workers,"  and  the 
first  Roman  priests  were  poor  of  their  kind,  covetous,  dissi- 
pated, drunken.  Nothing  so  wore  on  Kemper's  spirits,  and 
later  on  Upfold's, — nothing,  in  their  judgment,  was  so  seri- 
ous a  drawback  to  western  missions, — as  the  clerical  timber, 
the  number  of  "poor,  crooked  sticks,"  that  they  had  to  fit 
into  diocesan  fabrics.  One  of  these,  for  example,  not  a  bad 
man  by  any  means,  but  hopelessly  devoid  of  practical  sense, 
was  a  source  of  amusement  wherever  he  went,  owing  to  his 
ignorance  and  obstinacy.  He  could  not  and  would  not 
learn  to  harness  a  horse  and  hitch  him  in  a  wagon ;  could 
not  be  made  to  see  how  the  old-style  collar  went  on  the  ani- 
mal's neck ;  and  once  mounting  his  horse  in  a  hurry,  hind- 
side  foremost,  sat  with  his  face  to  the  tail.  "  Able  men, 
thoroughly  instructed  as  sound  divines,  and  prepared  to  re- 
fute every  error,"  said  Kemper,  "and  only  such,  should 
come  to  the  West.  Those  who  cannot  succeed  at  the  East, 
— who  are  illiterate,  ignorant  of  human  nature,  indolent,  or 
characterized  by  great  peculiarities,  would  be  useless  here. 
The  post  demands  skilful,  vigilant,  and  brave  soldiers,  ready 
to  endure  hardship."  As  these  were  hard  to  get,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  he  was  speedily  forced,  like  Chase,  to  the  con- 
clusion that  "we  must  soon  begin  to  look  to  our  own  soil 
and  our  own  resources  for  our  clergy."  Years  later,  Talbot 
testified  that  "it  has  been  found  that  the  men  best  adapted 
to  our  western  missionary  work  have  been  trained  to  it  on 
the  spot." 

Certainly  no  good  churchman,  filled  with  the  love  of  God 
and  human  souls,  and  richly  dowered  with  common  sense, 
ever  failed  to  receive  meet  compensation  anyAvhere.  The 
trouble  in  pioneer  times  was  that  too  many  had  the  last 


138         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

qualification  without  the  zeal,  and  their  canniness  was  soon 
seen  through ;  missionaries  that  went  West  in  search  of  for- 
tune, and  parishes  that  expected  to  get  much  for  little,  to 
get  good  clerical  service  cheap,  were  mutually  disappointed. 
Others  who  had  the  churchmanship  or  the  zeal  but  lacked 
the  saving  grace  of  good  sense  were  disqualified  by  eccen- 
tricity shading  into  fanaticism  of  type  more  or  less  mild. 
Given  a  minister  of  the  right  kind,  who  duly  instructs  his 
people  in  the  theology  of  giving,  and  the  cause  of  penury 
would  be  removed.  This  last  suggestion  might  be  expanded 
into  a  volume ;  in  this  branch  of  their  duty  the  clergy  them- 
selves are  remiss, — false  modesty,  sensitiveness,  or  what  not 
renders  them  tongue-tied  ;  they  should  in  due  season  impress 
the  truth  that  people's  gifts  to  God  are  the  sacrament  of 
their  means, — a  sign  of  loyalty  and  homage,  a  tribute  to  the 
King  of  kings. 

Bishop  Kemper  was  severely  disappointed  that  for  a  term 
of  years  he  was  so  straightened  in  finances  that  he  could  not 
revisit  the  Indian  territory.  Golden  prospects  of  spiritual 
gain  were  thrown  away  by  a  near-sighted,  close-fisted  policy 
in  the  present.  The  Mexican  War  and  consequent  territorial 
accessions  inimitably  enlarged  his  field  of  vision ;  of  a  sud- 
den the  sphere  of  domestic  missionary  duty  was  extended  as 
far  beyond  the  westernmost  station  of  the  first  year  of  his 
episcopate,  as  that  station  was  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlan- 
tic. "Should  my  services,  as  it  is  highly  probable,  be  no 
longer  required  in  Indiana,"  he  wrote,  at  the  close  of  that 
war,  "  I  contemplate,  during  the  fall,  an  extensive  visitation 
of  Iowa  and  the  Northern  territory  ;  and  I  feel  assured  that, 
whenever  missionaries  are  wanted  for  the  country  that  is 
washed  by  the  Pacific  Ocean,  there  are  two  or  more  able 
men  in  the  ministry  who  will  be  ready  to  go  to  that  impor- 
tant region."     Pie  had  announced  his  expansion  policy  as 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     139 

follows  :  "I  shall  require  hereafter  each  clergyman  within 
my  jurisdiction,  who  is  aided  by  the  Board,  to  visit,  at  least 
four  times  every  year,  one  or  more  places  within  twenty 
miles  of  his  residence ;  and  thus  new  stations  will  be  pre- 
pared for  the  fostering  care  of  the  Church." 

"Iowa  to  a  fearful  extent  has  yet  been  unexplored  by  the 
Church.  There  are  now  missionaries  at  Burlington,  Daven- 
port, and  Dubuque  ;  Iowa  City,  Bloomington,  and  the  town 
of  Fort  Madison  should  be  immediately  attended  to,  while 
two  or  three  itinerants  would  be  of  the  greatest  use." 

In  1846  Iowa  became  a  state, — "  the  first  free  child  born 
of  the  Missouri  compromise."  The  preamble  to  her  consti- 
tution, expressing  gratitude  to  the  Supreme  Being  for  his 
blessings,  and  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  him  for  their 
continuance,  registers  a  marked  improvement  in  the  temper 
of  the  times  ;  a  religious  regeneration  had  taken  place  since 
her  neighbor  to  the  eastward  became  a  state,  a  generation 
before.  It  is  not  extravagant  to  opine  that  Kemper's  life 
and  work  had  contributed  to  this  desirable  consummation. 

In  1848,  he  laid  the  corner  stone  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Dubuque.  The  missionary  at  Burlington  was  almost  ready 
to  begin  building  there,  having  collected  funds  for  a  brick 
church.  "  Keokuk  is  growing  rapidly,"  the  bishop  reports, 
"and  will  be  an  important  place."  He  was  distressed  by  a 
blight  that  had  been  cast  upon  a  promising  beginning  at 
Bloomington  by  the  intemperance  of  the  missionary,  who 
was  tried  and  suspended.  At  Trinity  Church,  Davenport, 
where  a  missionary  of  the  board  had  labored  for  five  years 
without  local  remuneration,  a  public  appeal  in  which  he 
"  urged  in  plain  and  pointed  terms  the  duty  of  church  peo- 
ple to  do  something  in  the  way  of  sustaining"  him  at  his 
post  gave  great  offence.  "  No  people  have  a  right  to  expect 
the    Domestic     Board   to   sustain   a   station   forever,"    he 


140         AN   APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

averred,  with  perfect  truth,  "  and  I  stated  this  fact  plainly 
and  distinctly  to  the  congregation  ;  "  but  something  in  his 
manner  of  statement,  and  something  also  in  the  background, 
apparently,  caused  great  and  increasing  prejudice ;  in  the 
two  ensuing  years,  only  sixty-five  dollars  were  paid  him,  in 
response  to  his  appeal,  by  the  congregation,  which  steadily 
diminished  until  in  1849,  when  he  was  replaced  by  Alfred 
Louderback,  a  missionary  from  Bishop  Chase's  diocese,  it 
had  shrunk  to  only  a  dozen  souls. 

The  "Northern  territory,"  Bishop  Kemper's  allusion  to 
which  may  have  puzzled  the  reader,  was  that  subsequently 
known  as  Minnesota.  It  was  as  late  as  the  year  1819  that 
the  authority  of  the  general  government  was  first  made  good 
over  its  vast  extent  by  the  establishment  of  Fort  Snelling. 
The  first  settlement  within  it  was  made  by  lumbermen,  in 
1837,  upon  the  St,  Croix  river.  In  1846,  there  were  a  few 
shanties  of  Indian  rum-sellers  upon  the  site  of  St.  Paul. 
When  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  became  states,  this  territory, 
which  had  pertained  to  both  of  them,  was  organized  by  the 
name  of  Minnesota.  Kemper  visited  it  for  the  first  time  in 
the  spring  of  1848,  spending  a  few  days  with  the  pioneer 
missionary  at  Stillwater  on  the  St.  Croix,  who,  beside  the 
chaplain  at  Fort  Snelling,  was  the  only  clergyman  in  the 
field.  The  bishop  learned  enough  to  convince  him  of  its 
coming  importance;  farms  were  being  cleared  in  every 
direction,  and  the  villages  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Anthony  were 
rapidly  increasing  in  population. 

1847  was  a  memorable  year  in  the  history  of  the  diocese 
of  Wisconsin,  which  then  held  its  primary  convention, 
twenty-one  clergymen  and  representatives  of  seventeen 
parishes  attending, — an  excellent  showing  for  the  bishop's 
nine  years'  work.  He  was  elected  diocesan,  but  gently  de- 
clined the  honor,   being   unwilling  to  resign  his  missionary 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    141 

charge.  The  school  at  Nashotah  was  incorporated  the  same 
year,  and  gave  the  world  its  first  book :  Professor  William 
Adams'  maiden  treatise,  bearing  the  somewhat  sensational 
title,  "  Mercy  to  Babes."  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  not  a 
native  American  but  an  Irishman  by  birth  made  the  first 
contribution  of  the  western  church  to  theological  literature. 
It  is  a  plea  for  the  restoration  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
that  Americans  may  become  a  righteous  people.  The  mo- 
tive of  its  production  was  the  great  strength  of  the  Baptists 
and  similar  bodies  in  the  West.  They  demand  (i):  Scrip- 
tural warrant  for  infant  baptism,  and  (2):  a  profession  of 
faith  by  the  candidate.  Adams  replies  by  demanding  (i)  : 
any  Scriptural  evidence  of  its  prohibition, — and  goes  on  to 
show  that  it  is  consonant  with  the  tenor  of  Scripture :  why 
exclude  infants,  for  example,  when  exercising  the  divine 
commission  to  "  baptize  all  nations  "  ? — while  he  affirms  (2): 
that  baptism  is  more  than  a  sign  of  profession  or  an  ordi- 
nance,— for  it  conveys  spiritual  blessing,  grace,  remission  of 
sin,  and  is  the  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  that  is, 
the  Church,  and  into  mystical  union  with  the  Redeemer. 

The  conclusion  is  that  it  is  cruelty  to  withhold  these 
inestimable  benefits  from  babes,  and  so  imperil  their  salva- 
tion. 

The  year  after  the  publication  of  this  treatise,  Adams 
married  Elizabeth  Kemper,  the  bishop's  daughter.  This 
union  was  the  death-blow  to  Breck's  ascetic  ideal,  which 
henceforth  declined,  while  Adams'  influence  increased  at 
Nashotah.  In  his  next  book  the  latter  came  out  boldly  with 
the  dogma  that  it  is  generally  wrong  not  to  marry:  "Mar- 
riage is,  by  its  very  nature,  and  by  the  very  nature  and  being 
of  man,"  he  wrote,  "a  better  state  than  singleness,  a  more 
moral  state,  a  more  natural  and  useful  state;  and  except 
there  is  some  impediment  that  makes  it  positively  wrong  to 


142         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

marry,  all  are  bound  to  marry,  and  are  better  vietitally, 
morally,  and  physically  because  of  it^ 

Nevertheless,  when  after  marriage  hot  soda  biscuits  were 
provided  for  his  breakfast,  he  had  them  removed  from  the 
table  while  he  said  grace, — for,  he  declared,  he  could  not 
consistently  thank  God  for  such  a  dispensation  !  He  was 
master  of  a  keen  and  caustic  Avit, — a  warning  and  a  woe  to 
the  presumptuous  or  wilfully  stupid  student.  One  rarely 
repeated  a  foolish  or  irrelevant  question  after  he  had  en- 
countered the  professor's  meditative  upward  gaze  and 
pointed  reply:  "Young  gentlemen,  I  can  teach  theology, 
but  there  is  one  thing  I  can't  do.  I  can't  furnish  my 
pupils  with  brains."  The  bumptiousness  of  the  new  stu- 
dent, disposed  to  argue  a  point,  saying  that  he  couldn't  see 
or  couldn't  believe  so  and  so,  did  not  long  survive  the  dis- 
comfiture of  his  indulgent,  pitying  acquiescence  :  "  Very 
well ;  that  is  possible  in  extraordinary  cases  of  malforma- 
tion of  mind." 

In  1847  Bishop  Kemper  had  the  sorrow  of  losing  his  old 
and  tried  friend  and  faithful  collaborator,  Samuel  Roose- 
velt Johnson,  who  was  transferred  from  Indiana  to  New 
York,  where  after  a  short  time  he  became  professor  of  sys- 
tematic divinity  in  the  General  Seminary.  All  through  the 
term  of  years  study  of  which  we  are  now  concluding,  the 
bishop  had  watched  over  Indiana  with  the  tenderest  care. 
From  the  beginning  he  had  been  attached  to  it  by  pecul- 
iarly strong  and  warm  ties  of  affection,  and  his  compassion 
for  the  diocese  in  its  trials  and  disappointments  (it  had  just 
suffered  the  mortification  of  a  second  rejection  of  its  episco- 
pate by  Thomas  Atkinson)  led  him  to  redouble  his  exertions 
in  its  service.  And  warmly  were  they  appreciated,  as  the 
following  touching  tribute  from  a  struggling  missionary 
proves:    "Amid   our  overwhelming  cares,   our  s])irits  are 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    143 

truly  refreshed  by  the  annual  visitation  of  our  beloved  Mis- 
sionary Bishop.  It  is  like  the  return  of  day  to  the  polar  re- 
gions, and  we  forget  the  sorrows  of  the  past  in  the  gratifica- 
tion of  the  present.  At  ray  home  station  four  candidates 
have  just  been  confirmed,  and  all  admitted  to  the  commun- 
ion. The  Bishop  preached  in  our  unfinished  church,  and  it 
truly  was  a  season  of  refreshing  to  our  souls."  In  the 
progress  of  his  visitations,  Kemper  often  encountered  old 
pupils  of  Dr.  Wylie,  of  the  state  university.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1847  occurred  the  first  breach  of  the  excellent 
health  he  had  enjoyed  for  the  first  twelve  years  of  his  epis- 
copate ;  after  a  visitation  in  the  region  of  the  Wabash  he 
was  prostrated  by  an  attack  of  bilious,  or  remittent,  or  ma- 
larial fever,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  travel,  went  East, 
according  to  his  physician's  advice,  and  was  in  time  to  at- 
tend the  session  of  the  general  convention  in  New  York. 
The  ensuing  November  found  him  back  in  Wisconsin,  and 
for  the  15th  and  i6th  of  December  we  find  the  following 
entry  in  his  journal :  "I  attended  with  several  of  my 
clerical  brethren  the  examinations  of  the  students  at  Nash- 
otah,  in  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  History,  Arithmetic,  Geog- 
raphy, Algebra,  Natural  Philosophy,  Euclid,  and  Rhet- 
oric. Much  satisfaction  was  afforded.  At  the  close  of  the 
exercises  a  matriculation  sermon  was  delivered  by  me  to  the 
students.  There  are  here  about  twenty-five  lads  and  young 
men,  in  various  stages  of  preparation  for  the  ministry. ' ' 

We  have  here  an  indication  of  the  academic  department 
which  was  shortly  after  fully  organized  at  Nashotah,  and  at- 
tracted boys  from  all  over  the  state.  Wherever  he  traveled 
the  bishop  was  enthusiastic  in  his  commendation  of  the 
school,  not  the  least  of  whose  recommendations  was  the  fact 
that  the  annual  cost  of  a  student's  living  needed  not  to  exceed 
seventy-five  dollars. 


144         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

In  the  course  of  a  visitation  in  its  neighborhood,  he 
preached  in  several  private  houses,  in  a  mill,  a  bar-room, 
and  a  ballroom.  In  February,  1848,  he  consecrated  Grace 
Church,  Sheboygan,  and  in  April  laid  the  corner  stone  of 
St.  Paul's  Church,  Beloit.  In  passing  between  Wisconsin 
and  Indiana  he  often  preached  in  Chicago,  where,  in  1849, 
Nashotah's  first  ordinand,  a  Swede  named  Gustaf  Unonius, 
organized  St.  Ansgarius'  Church  for  his  fellow-countrymen. 
In  June  of  the  latter  year  Kemper  presided  over  the  dio- 
cesan convention  of  Indiana  which  elected  Dr.  George  Up- 
fold  as  its  bishop.  His  record  as  rector  for  eighteen  years 
of  an  important  parish  in  Pittsburg,  which  was  still  re- 
garded as  a  western  city,  taken  in  connection  with  mission 
work  that  he  had  done  in  its  vicinity,  made  him  a  most  eli- 
gible choice,  and  the  rejoicing  was  great  when  he  termi- 
nated the  long  suspense  of  the  diocese  in  perfecting  its  or- 
ganization by  signifying  his  acceptance  of  the  call,  "  at  a  pe- 
riod," as  his  people  testified  when  he  came  to  lay  down  his 
earthly  burden,  "  which  promised  nothing  but  severe  labor, 
great  personal  self-sacrifice  and  self  denial,  with  small  visi- 
ble results  to  long-continued,  patient  work,  laying  founda- 
tions that  others  might  build  thereon."  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that,  though  he  must  have  known  Upfold's  earnest 
desire  that  it  should  be  included,  Philander  Chase,  to  whom 
as  presiding  bishop  it  fell  to  make  arrangements  for  the  con- 
secration, omitted  Kemper's  name  from  the  list  of  consecra- 
tors.  The  slight,  or  oversight,  was  remedied  by  the  bishop- 
elect,  who  telegraphed  an  urgent  invitation  to  take  part ; 
and  on  the  i6th  of  December,  1849,  being  the  third 
Sunday  in  Advent,  George  Upfold  was  consecrated  the  first 
diocesan  bishop  of  Indiana,  in  Christ  Church,  Indianapo- 
lis, by  Bishops  Bosworth  Smith,  Mcllvaine,  Kemper  and 
Hawks. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     145 

Our  hero  was  thus  relieved  of  the  oversight  of  twenty- 
three  parishes, — for  to  that  number,  beginning  fourteen 
years  before  with  none  at  all,  had  he  nursed  the  new  dio- 
cese. "  He  retires  from  that  scene  of  his  missionary 
labors,"  said  a  writer  in  the  organ  of  the  board  of  missions, 
"  with  the  high  consciousness  of  having  long  willingly  ren- 
dered severe,  self-sacrificing,  and  disinterested  services,  un- 
requited, except  by  honor  and  affection, — followed  by  the 
reverence  and  respect,  the  love  and  the  best  wishes  and 
prayers  of  all.  Blessings  go  with  him  on  his  way, — bless- 
ings on  his  person  and  his  work."  Planting  himself  firmly 
in  Wisconsin,  he  could  henceforth  turn  westward  an  undi- 
verted gaze,  for  the  remainder  of  his  jurisdiction  lay  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  Of  Wisconsin  he  could  report,  in  1850, 
that  "  already  a  few  of  our  congregations  have,  with  God's 
blessing,  gained  such  strength,  that  beside  supporting  their 
own  rector  they  might  almost  sustain  a  missionary."  He 
found  the  parish  at  Racine,  now  worshipping  in  a  neat  new 
Gothic  church,  in  a  greatly  improved  condition,  the  new 
rector,  the  Reverend  Azel  Dow  Cole,  having  won  all  hearts. 

The  scion  of  a  Puritan  family  in  Connecticut,  Cole  was 
born  in  1818, — the  same  year  as  Breck,  whose  classmate  he 
became  at  the  General  Theological  Seminary,  and  whose 
work  at  Nashotah  he  was  destined  to  continue.  Of  his  sen- 
sations when,  as  a  college  student  at  Providence,  he  first 
entered  an  Episcopal  church  and  beheld  its  form  of  worship, 
he  has  left  the  striking  impression  that  he  felt  as  if  every  one 
there  were  committing  idolatry.  Naturally,  when  he  be- 
came an  Episcopalian,  his  churchmanship  was  of  pro- 
nounced type. 

Breck  had  for  some  time  been  meditating  a  move  further 
west.  He  felt  oppressed  by  the  business  cares  of  Nashotah 
House  which  he  had  now  borne  for  several  years,  and  was 


146         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

rendered  restless  by  the  conviction  that  his  ideal  had  never 
been  fairly  tested  there,  and  was  becoming  a  rapidly  vanish- 
ing quantity.  He  was  also  worried  by  the  problem  which 
he  expressed  in  the  following  words :  "Can  the  Church 
recover  and  be  Catholic,  or  must  she  become  Romish?" 
More  than  all  this,  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that  the  fever 
of  the  frontier  was  in  his  blood ;  Chase  and  Kemper  the 
bishops  and  Breck  the  priest  were  the  three  eminent  pioneers 
of  the  church  in  the  West,  and  their  careers  sum  up  a  suffi- 
cient history  of  its  planting.  Still  with  the  ideal  of  a  pristine 
monastery  flitting  before  his  mind's  eye,  and  taking  with  him 
two  young  unmarried  ministers,  brought  from  the  East, 
named  Wilcoxson  and  Merrick,  Breck  left  Nashotah  in  the 
early  summer  of  1850,  but  though  he  forsook  Wisconsin  he 
did  not  at  this  time  pass  beyond  the  bounds  of  Kemper's 
jurisdiction  ;  plunging  with  his  companions  into  the  forests 
of  Minnesota,  which  they  claimed  for  Christ  by  rearing  on 
the  border  a  great  rustic  cross,  they  threaded  its  streams  and 
established  their  mission  house  on  a  site  commanding  the 
village  of  St.  Paul. 

The  presidency  thus  left  vacant  at  Nashotah  was  filled, 
and  well  and  faithfully  filled,  by  Azel  Cole.  When  he  took 
charge  there  was  a  debt  upon  the  institution  and  no  funds 
to  its  credit ;  its  dependence  for  material  support  was  upon 
the  free  will  gifts  of  friends,  coming  by  mail.  During  his 
long  term  of  service.  Dr.  Cole  was  president,  professor,  and 
priest  at  the  seminary,  rector  of  St.  Sylvanus',  and  a  con- 
scientious preacher  and  missionary  at  stations  near  and  far. 
For  many  years  he  was  both  treasurer  and  secretary  of  the 
faculty,  conducting  a  considerable  correspondence,  despatch- 
ing circulars,  editing  a  Sunday-school  paper,  and  even  act- 
ing in  the  capacity  of  steward,  buying  provisions  for  the 
refectory  at  his  office  door.     The  sad  financial  necessities  of 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     147 

his  position  bred  in  him  a  regrettable  but  doubtless  inevi- 
table closeness  in  money  matters.  His  figure  was  tall  and 
erect,  his  expression  grave  and  somewhat  forbidding;  his 
eyes  were  dark  and  searchir.j,s  lips  thin  and  close-pressed, 
the  upper  one  shaven,  cheeks  and  chin  covered  with  a  bushy 
beard.  Behind  a  certain  constraint  of  manner  he  concealed 
a  kind  heart  and  tenacious  will.  For  some  time  he  and  Dr. 
Adams  were  the  only  teachers  at  the  seminary,  until  Lewis 
Kemper  was  graduated  and  appointed  tutor  in  New  Testa- 
ment Greek. 

In  1850  Adams  published  his  principal  work,  "The  Ele- 
ments of  Christian  Science,"  with  the  explanatory  sub-title, 
"A  Treatise  upon  Moral  Philosophy  and  Practice."  The 
work  would  be  more  intelligibly  and  accurately  defined  to- 
day as  moral  theology  or  theological  ethics ;  upon  a  care- 
fully considered  psychological  basis  the  author  constructs  a 
system  of  duties  and  activities  directed  and  restrained  by 
religious.  Scriptural  and  ecclesiastical  motives  and  sanc- 
tions. The  use  of  the  term  "science  "  is  explained  in  the 
preface  :  every  living  thing  is  scientifically  investigated  un- 
der the  two  aspects  of  its  Nature  and  Position,  (in  modern 
phraseology,  organism  and  environment) ;  and  from  these 
complementary  points  of  view  the  author  proposes  to  con- 
sider man  as  a  moral  being.  He  starts  from  the  premise 
that  human  nature  and  all  its  powers  are  good  in  them- 
selves,—not  bestial  or  devilish,— but  fallen.  The  perfection 
of  that  nature  is  to  be  sought  in  something  outside  itself, 
/.  c,  in  God.  The  subject  of  the  conscience  is  first  treated, 
because  in  the  doctor's  view  the  normal  movement  is  from 
the  moral  to  the  intellectual  powers;  moral  precedes  and 
produces  mental  awakening,  he  says,  and  he  thus  dethrones 
tiie  popular  educational  fetish:  "He  that  shall  send  his 
son  to  a  school  wherein  his  meiihil  powers  are  trained  in  the 


148         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

very  fullest  way,  and  expect  that  by  reason  of  that  training 
his  moral  powers  shall  be  educated,  without  a  direct  iraiti- 
ing  addressed  to  them, — that  man  has  mistaken  the  very  na- 
ture of  things."  The  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  total  de- 
pravity is  negatived  by  the  admission  that  the  natural  man 
does  good,  and  does  it  by  the  aid  of  divine  grace.  The 
dilemma  of  the  binding  nature  of  the  decrees  of  conscience, 
which  may  yet  be  utterly  mistaken,  is  thus  resolved ;  con- 
science by  itself  is  fallible,  and  needs  enlightenment ;  it  is 
infallible  as  far  as  it  reports  accurately  the  will  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Restlessness,  shame  and  fear  are  the  penalties  for 
breach  of  conscience,  the  only  cure  for  which  is  the  Atone- 
ment made  by  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

The  next  division  of  the  work  is  on  the  reason,  which  is 
carefully  distinguished  from  "reasoning"  or  arguing,  the 
infidel  and  sectarian  passion  of  the  hour.  Adams  professed 
himself  a  trichotomist,  distinguishing  psychical  and  spirit- 
ual factors  in  human  nature, — an  animal  soul  or  understand- 
ing and  a  spiritual  reason.  Throughout  this  discussion 
there  is  much  unacknowledged  indebtedness  to  Coleridge's 
"Aids  to  Reflection."  The  highest  law  or  object  of  the 
reason  is  the  faith  of  Christ,  revealed  in  Holy  Scripture, 
taught  by  the  Church. 

In  the  part  of  the  treatise  that  deals  with  the  affections, 
that  property  of  our  nature  is  defined  as  disinterested  love 
of  persons ;  if  things  enter  into  the  calculation  affection  de- 
generates into  desire.  It  must  issue  in  action,  or  else  it 
degenerates  into  sentimentalism..  Its  highest  exercise  is  when 
it  is  occupied  with  the  person  of  the  Incarnate  Lord,  in  the 
Holy  Communion.  This  division  ends  with  a  plea  for 
weekly  communions.  In  that  which  follows,  upon  the 
home  and  its  affections,  occurs  the  declaration  concerning 
marriage,  before  quoted. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     149 

The  last  part  treats  of  the  will,  and  the  dilemma  of  its 
freedom  and  bondage  is  thus  turned :  spiritual  motives  free 
the  will,  carnal  ones  enslave  it.  The  author  ranges  himself 
with  the  Greek  soteriologists  by  the  following  remarkable 
judgment  :  "  In  bringing  into  Christianity  the  Stoic  doctrine 
of  Fate,  Augustine  .  .  .  inflicted  a  grievous  wound 
upon  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel."  The  will  should  in  all 
things  be  ruled  by  the  law  of  liberty,  which  is  the  law  of 
Christ. 

One  can  hardly  doubt  that  Adams  had  his  own  father-in- 
law  in  mind  when  he  penned  this  ideal  picture  of  psycholog- 
ical harmony  :  "  Who  is  the  man  that  is  naturally  the  best  in 
your  circle  of  acquaintance?  Why,  it  is  that  man  that 
unites,  in  the  greatest  perfection,  these  four  governing 
powers, — first,  the  Will — he  that  having  a  straight,  definite, 
decided  course  before  him,  pursues  it  with  decision  and 
energy  from  day  to  day ;  second,  the  Conscience, — who  in 
that  course  makes  it  his  main  object  to  go  according  to  his 
sense  of  right  and  wrong ;  third,  the  Affections, — he  who, 
as  regards  his  brethren,  observes  the  great  Christian  rule  of 
'  loving  his  neighbor  as  himself  ;  and  fourth,  the  Reason, — 
who  tempers  all  this  into  a  harmonious  and  consistent 
course  by  a  considerate  mindy 

The  above  is  a  wonderfully  accurate  analysis  of  Kemper's 
character,  the  key  to  which  was,  as  we  know,  his  absolute 
steadfastness  to  duty,  and  as  far  as  it  goes  is  a  most  faithful 
mental  photograph, — but  to  complete  the  picture  we  have 
to  add  certain  spiritual  qualities,  especially  that  Christian 
cheerfulness,  that  strain  of  childlike  happiness,  that  was  so 
winning  in  him.  He  kept  the  heart  of  a  boy  after  the 
snows  of  more  than  sixty  winters  had  descended  on  his 
head.  "We  Christians,"  said  St.  Clement  in  his  loveliest 
passage,  "  having  learned  the  new  blessings,  have  the  exuber- 


150         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ance  of  life's  morning  prime  in  this  youth  which  knows  no 
old  age,  in  which  we  are  always  growing  to  maturity  in  in- 
telligence, are  always  young,  always  mild,  always  new  ;  for 
they  must  necessarily  be  new  who  have  become  partakers  of 
the  new  Word.  And  that  which  participates  in  eternity  is 
wont  to  be  assimilated  to  the  incorruptible  :  so  that  to  us 
appertains  the  designation  of  the  age  of  childhood,  a  life- 
long springtime,  because  the  truth  that  is  in  us,  and  our 
habits  saturated  with  the  truth,  cannot  be  touched  by  old 
age ;  but  Wisdom  is  ever  blooming,  ever  remains  consistent 
and  the  same." 

In  this  quinquenniad,  the  bishop  was  able  to  devote  more 
time  and  attention  than  before  to  building  up  the  church  in 
the  northern  part  of  Wisconsin,  and  of  his  activity  in  this 
direction  the  consecration  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Fond  du 
Lac,  and  St.  James'  Church,  Manitowoc,  both  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1852,  maybe  taken  as  illustrations.  He  had  the 
great  gratification  of  reporting  the  foundation,  the  same 
year,  of  a  church  college  at  Racine,  "  under  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Roswell  Park,  a  distinguished  and  highly  scientific  Presby- 
ter, whose  entire  devotion  to  his  sacred  duties  of  training 
up  the  young  men  committed  to  his  care  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord  is  full  of  the  most  gratifying 
promise.  To  the  generosity  of  the  inhabitants  of  this 
thriving  and  beautiful  place  we  are  indebted  for  a  good 
building,  finely  situated  near  the  city,  and  on  the  border  of 
Lake  Michigan." 

This  year,  too,  the  first  railroad  in  the  state,  begun  at 
Milwaukee  the  preceding  year,  crept  by  Nashotah  in  the 
direction  of  Madison  and  the  Mississippi. 

An  equally  if  not  actually  more  prominent  feature  of  the 
bishop's  work  in  this  tract  of  time  was  the  attention  he  paid 
to  his  jurisdiction  beyond   the  great  river.     He  made  as  a 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     151 

rule  two  visitations  a  year  in  Iowa  and  Minnesota.  The 
latter  territory  was  beginning  to  repeat  the  history  of  Wis- 
consin ;  a  similar  heterogeneous  human  deluge  was  pouring 
into  it;  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  experience  proved  that 
European  immigrants  offered  about  the  most  intractable 
material  for  the  church  to  work  with.  For  two  years  Breck 
and  his  associates  did  yeoman's  service, — but  what  were 
they  among  so  many?  The  resources  of  the  mission  were 
overtaxed ;  it  was  not  reinforced ;  at  the  end  of  that  time 
Merrick  was  taken  ill  and  had  to  leave ;  the  fast  growing 
town  of  St.  Paul  made  increasing  demands  upon  the  serv- 
ices of  his  companion  ;  and  the  mission  was  practically 
dissolved.  In  1852  Breck  himself  became  absorbed  in 
work  among  the  Indians.  "  We  intend  going  up  the  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  full  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  above 
this,"  he  wrote  from  St.  Paul,  in  March  of  that  year,  "for 
the  purpose  of  visiting  bands  of  Indians,  and  selecting  a  lo- 
cation. .  .  ,  We  are  willing  to  bury  ourselves  in  the 
woods  along  with  the  Indian,  and  live  a  wigwam  life,  if  we 
can  only  save  him  from  ruin,  which  is  his  present  condition, 
soul  and  body."  In  the  same  letter  he  told  of  an  event  of 
a  picturesque  character  to  which  he  was  looking  forward  :  a 
meeting,  in  the  wilds  of  Minnesota,  of  his  own  missionary 
bishop  and  the  bishop  of  Prince  Rupert's  Land, — "each 
holding  dioceses,  as  Professor  Adams  would  say,  the  largest 
since  the  days  of  St.  Paul." 

Bishop  Kemper  was  warmly  interested  in  the  new  depar- 
ture, for  the  needs  of  the  red  men  were  a  weight  upon  his 
soul.  Almost  the  only  work  that  the  church  was  doing  for 
them  was  done  for  the  Oneidas  of  his  diocese  of  Wisconsin, 
and  it  grieved  him  that,  year  after  year,  he  was  unable  to 
visit  the  Indian  territory.  Breck  threw  himself  into  the 
work  with  his  accustomed  ardor,  and  achieved  results  that 


152         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

deeply  impressed  the  leading  men  of  his  territory.  Before 
long  he  had  a  class  to  present  for  confirmation,  and  in  a 
neat  log  chapel  at  Kaygeeashkoonsikag,  the  site  of  the  Chip- 
pewa mission,  Kemper  confirmed  Mary  Medemoyan  State- 
lar,  Rebecca  Odahbenanequa  Manitowab,  Charlotte  Pewah- 
bekokethegoqua  Johnson,  David  Kahsequa,  and  John  An- 
negahbowk  Johnson.  Even  these  phonetic  and  orthogra- 
phic terrors  pale  before  the  formidable  name  of  the  mission 
station  of  Kahsahgawsquahjeomokag,  or  that  of  a  place 
whence  Breck  often  had  occasion  to  date  his  letters, — Nigig- 
waunowahsahgahigaw  !  In  1854  we  hear  mention,  for  the 
first  time,  of  a  box  of  clothing  sent  by  the  ladies  of  a  far- 
away parish  to  a  western  missionary ;  it  was  for  some  of  the 
Indians  under  Breck's  care,  and  he  returned  grateful 
acknowledgment.  "  Every  article  in  this  box  has  proved 
highly  serviceable,"  he  wrote,  "and  could  the  ladies  behold 
the  young  girls  in  the  schoolroom  preparing  their  own 
dresses  under  the  admirable  supervision  of  Miss  Mills,  their 
teacher,  and  then  see  them  washing  and  ironing  them,  in 
order  to  appear  in  clean  apparel  for  Sundays,  they  would 
think  this  step  a  great  advance  upon  the  Pagan  habits 
of  half  nakedness  and  filth  in  the  extreme  of  eighteen 
months  since.  The  women  are  well  disposed  to  adopt  the 
white  dress,  and  to  wear  shawls  instead  of  the  blanket." 

By  this  time  Bishop  Kemper  had  laid  the  corner  stones  of 
five  churches  in  Minnesota,  and  there  were,  beside  two  army 
chaplains,  six  clergymen  in  the  territory,  one  of  whom, 
Breck's  comrade,  Wilcoxson,  was  acting  as  an  itinerant 
evangelist,  and  actually  obtaining  contributions  for  domestic 
missions  from  the  missions  in  his  charge. 

Even  more  than  to  Minnesota  did  the  bishop  devote  him- 
self to  Iowa,  laboring  in  this  period,  as  he  labored  through- 
out the  previous  one  in  Indiana,  to  foster  its  feeble  churches 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     153 

and  build  them  into  a  diocese.  The  growth  of  the  state 
was  phenomenal ;  in  the  five  years  of  which  we  are  treating 
its  population  more  than  doubled  ;  in  the  year  1850  nearly 
two  hundred  thousand  people  poured  into  it  as  into  a  land 
of  promise.  On  roads  where  in  1851  a  coach  twice  a  week 
was  sufficient  service,  only  three  years  later  two  coaches  a 
day  were  required.  By  that  time  the  Chicago  and  Rock 
Island  railroad  had  been  completed  to  a  point  opposite 
Davenport,  and  the  corner  stone  was  laid  of  the  first  bridge 
that  was  to  span  the  Mississippi.  What  between  Whigs, 
Democrats,  and  Free  Soilers,  politics  in  the  state  were  sim- 
ply riotous.  Presbyterians  were  very  active  in  forming  their 
societies,  Mormons  carried  on  an  aggressive  propaganda, 
while  at  Salubria  a  certain  Abner  Kneeland,  the  David 
Strauss  of  Iowa,  inaugurated  an  "age  of  reason"  in  which 
Thomas  Paine' s  writings  were  to  be  substituted  for  the 
bible,  dances  for  prayer-meetings,  and  gamesome  holidays 
for  Puritan  sabbaths.  It  was  remarked  that  in  crossing  the 
Mississippi  one  traveled  beyond  the  sabbath. 

In  185 1  an  unusually  rainy  spring  was  followed  by  a  pro- 
longed drought,  and  that  was  accompanied  by  a  terrible 
visitation  of  cholera. 

At  that  date  there  was  no  copper  money  in  circulation, 
and  the  little  three-cent  silver  piece  was  barely  tolerated, 
being  seldom  seen  save  at  post  offices  and  in  church  plates  ! 

These  few  points,  taken  at  random,  will  serve  to  indicate 
the  difficulties  with  which  Kemper  had  to  contend  in  plant- 
ing the  church  in  the  new  state.  The  difficulty  of  ob- 
taining and  supporting  clergy  seems  here  to  have  been  at 
its  maximum,  and  the  little  he  was  able  to  accomplish,  when 
contrasted  with  the  rapid  and  almost  fearful  increase  of  pop- 
ulation, was  deeply  humiliating  to  his  soul.  It  is  little 
wonder    that    he   sometimes   wrote   in   despondent   mood. 


154         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

"  Were  it  not  for  the  sure  word  of  prophecy,  and  the  pre- 
cious promises  of  the  Redeemer,  I  would  wish  to  relinquish  a 
post  which  I  sought  not,  and  where  I  have  almost  thought 
at  times  I  commanded  the  forlorn  hope."  The  average 
annual  contribution  of  the  Episcopal  church  for  mis- 
sions was  thirty  thousand  dollars,  of  which  half  went 
for  domestic  missions  ;  the  Roman  church  had  annual  offer- 
ings amounting  to  more  than  seven  times  that  total  to  apply 
to  its  extension  in  the  Americas,  and  principally  in  the 
United  States.  In  Missouri,  Bishop  Hawks  suggested  a 
means,  the  only  means  in  a  weak  diocese,  he  said,  for 
the  relief  of  widows  and  children  of  deceased  clergymen, 
and  that  was  for  every  parish  to  insure  its  rector's  life,  and 
so  remove  a  source  of  paralyzing  anxiety.  In  Indiana,  an 
enterprising  missionary  at  Evansville  cast  about  for  support 
in  ways  described  in  the  following  instructive  report : 
"  The  timely  relief  which  the  citizens  of  this  place  gave  me 
a  few  weeks  ago  by  a  donation  party,  removed  my  design 
of  abandoning  the  missionary  field  for  a  position  which 
would  afford  me  bread.  I  gave  a  course  of  lectures  on 
chemistry  in  the  Medical  College  the  first  winter,  in  expec- 
tation of  remuneration ;  but  in  this  was  disappointed ;  for 
the  receipts  by  notes  of  hand  and  a  few  dollars  in  cash  did 
not  more  than  cover  my  expenses.  Education  of  an  ele- 
vated character  is  not  sustained  by  this  community,  and 
hence  from  this  quarter  I  can  reap  no  aid.  I  even  tried 
popular  lectures  during  the  winter,  once  a  week,  but  made 
nothing — there  are  so  few  to  appreciate  instruction  of  the 
kind."  Elsewhere  in  the  same  diocese  a  fellow  missionary 
achieved  better  success  by  a  method  that  many  might  have 
adopted  and  might  still  adopt  to  great  and  general  advan- 
tage :  to  lighten  his  people's  burden  in  building  a  church, 
he  opened  a  school. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     155 

It  is  surprising  that  cultivated  clergymen  have  not  done 
more  for  popular  education. 

At  Crawfordsville,  the  missionary  added  to  his  Sunday- 
school  work  a  class  in  Church  History. 

In  Iowa  the  bishop  had  also  to  encounter  over  again  that 
great  obstacle  to  ecclesiastical  plantation  with  which  he  had 
had  to  contend  in  Indiana  fifteen  years  before, — the  contin- 
ual moving  of  the  population.  The  missionary  at  Burling- 
ton gave  forcible  expression  to  the  evil,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  pointed  out  a  certain  compensation:  "Could  I 
have  retained  the  persons  who  have  been  connected  with 
my  congregation  since  I  have  been  in  this  place,  my  records 
show  that  I  should  now  have  a  congregation  of  more  than 
four  hundred  persons.  We  may  justly  hope  that  the  many 
individuals,  thus  scattered  from  us  to  the  four  winds,  will 
carry  with  them  the  instruction  and  benefits  here  re- 
ceived, as  good  seed  that  shall  ultimately  bear  fruit." 

This  process  of  ecclesiastical  dissemination  was  abun- 
dantly illustrated  in  the  same  state ;  the  nucleus  of  Trinity 
parish,  Iowa  City,  and  of  St.  Paul's,  Des  Moines,  was  the 
fruit  "  of  the  early  labors  of  that  pioneer  of  pioneers.  Bishop 
Chase," — was,  in  each  case,  a  little  knot  of  communicants 
nurtured  by  him  years  before  in  Ohio  ;  and  greatly  would 
it  have  rejoiced  his  heart  and  consoled  his  spirit  to  know  it. 

Of  Augusta,  a  village  not  far  from  Burlington,  the  mis- 
sionary just  quoted  reports  :  "  The  morals  and  general 
interests  of  the  place  have  been  sadly  injured  by  the  Mor- 
mons. ...  It  seems  past  recovering  from  the  baleful 
effects  of  their  unholy  influence." 

The  parish  at  Davenport  had  been  in  a  bad  way,  with  a 
dilapidated  place  of  worship,  on  which  there  was  a  debt, 
and  a  diminishing  congregation,  favored  by  only  one  service 
on  Sundays  and  only  three  or  four  administrations  of  the 


156         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Lord's  Supper  in  a  year ;  but  under  the  Reverend  Alfred 
Louderback  it  began  rapidly  to  improve.  He  was  in  truth 
an  active,  zealous,  and  intelligent  missionary,  and  holds  in 
the  early  history  of  the  diocese  of  Iowa  a  position  not  un- 
like that  of  Roosevelt  Johnson  in  Indiana  or  Lloyd  Breck  in 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  He  proved  very  helpful  to 
Bishop  Kemper,  accompanying  him  upon  his  visitations,  and 
doing  efficient  service  in  the  founding  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Keokuk.  By  the  year  185 1  there  were  six  missionaries  in 
Iowa,  one  of  whom  discovered  that  the  disposition  of  the 
people — "at  least  the  better  class  of  people," — was  fav- 
orable to  the  church. 

The  bishop  laid  the  corner  stone  of  a  church  of  Gothic 
design  at  Cedar  Rapids  that  year,  and  in  1852  consecrated 
the  finished  edifice  at  Keokuk.  Meantime  at  Bloomington, 
which  had  changed  its  name  to  Muscatine,  there  was  rising 
"a  chaste  and  beautiful  specimen  of  the  old  English  style  " 
of  ecclesiastical  architecture,  rendered  possible  by  several 
hundred  dollars  procured  by  the  energetic  missionary  on  a 
begging  trip  at  the  East,  the  local  vestry  and  congregation 
having  pledged  twelve  hundred.  A  sure  sign  of  sincere  in- 
terest and  spiritual  growth  was  afforded  by  this  congrega- 
tion, in  that  it  stood  the  searching  test  of  bad  weather  ! 
The  missionary  noted  that  during  a  trying  winter,  when 
walking  was  exceedingly  bad,  attendance  upon  public  wor- 
ship was  regular,  and  even  increased.  At  this  time,  con- 
sideration of  '*  the  vast  extent  and  utter  destitution  of  the 
western  field  "  strengthened  Louderback  to  resist  a  tempt- 
ing invitation  to  return  to  his  old  parish  in  the  East.  We 
have  glimpses  of  him  as  he  drove  about  the  state  with 
Bishop  Kemper  in  a  buckboard.  They  always  went  pro- 
vided with  blankets,  both  woolen  and  of  India  rubber  ;  for 
sometimes  they  had  to  lie  on  a  bare  floor,  and  often  their 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     157 

accommodation  was  not  much  better.  One  winter's  night, 
when  they  had  found  sheher  in  a  poor  cottage  on  the  plains, 
somewhere  west  of  Dubuque,  they  were  snowbound  by  a 
sudden  and  violent  storm ;  in  the  morning  all  the  water  in 
the  house  was  frozen  ;  and  they  had  to  shovel  a  path 
through  the  snow  to  the  shed  where  they  had  put  their 
horse,  to  give  him  provender.  In  another  place,  the 
bishop's  sleep  was  anything  but  sound  ;  it  was  in  a  single 
roomed  cabin,  and  the  children  of  the  family  were  put  up 
in  a  loft  formed  of  loose  and  rattling  boards  laid  across  the 
beams ;  and  he  lay  below,  in  momentary  expectation  of 
having  them  all  down  on  him.  So  unassuming  was  he,  that 
when  helped  to  "chicken  fixin's  "  he  would  never  express 
his  preference,  and  so  it  happened  that  a  leg  generally  fell 
to  his  share  ;  until  at  last  his  companion's  spirit  was  stirred 
within  him,  and  he  burst  out :  "Do  give  the  bishop  a  bit 
of  breast,  or  we  shall  have  him  running  all  over  the  prai- 
ries ;  he's  had  nothing  but  legs  this  whole  journey." 

The  Reverend  Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  like  Dr.  Adams, 
an  Irishman,  who  appeared  in  1852  as  missionary  at  Madi- 
son, Wisconsin,  having  just  been  ordered  deacon  in  Nasho- 
tah  chapel,  bore  like  witness  to  the  bishop's  uncomplaining 
and  actually  joyful  endurance  of  hardship.  In  a  report 
dated  at  Portage,  he  gave  the  following  vivid  picture  of 
some  of  the  experiences  of  a  winter  visitation  in  Wisconsin : 
"  On  Monday  I  was  to  take  the  Bishop  to  Baraboo.  The 
river  had  frozen  again,  and  he  was  expected  at  night.  The 
thermometer  was  fifteen  degrees  below  zero.  The  ride  was 
seventeen  miles,  most  of  it  along  the  banks  of  a  frozen 
river  and  over  a  bare  prairie,  with  the  wind  blowing  bitterly 
the  wrong  way,  right  in  our  teeth.  We  could  only  get  an 
open  buggy  ;  but  the  Bishop  was  ready  at  eight  a.  m.  to  face 
the  prairie.     He  preached  twice,  confirmed  twice,  addressed 


158         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

the  candidates,  and  administered  the  communion ;  and 
having  been  on  his  feet  till  nine  or  ten  at  night,  might  be 
called  pretty  good  for  a  sexagenarian. 

"We  bundled  'the  buffaloes'  as  best  we  might,  and 
started,  and  after  a  '  spicy '  ride,  with  the  icicles  hanging 
round  our  faces,  arrived  in  Baraboo.  .  .  .  The  Bishop 
has  an  appointment  for  to-night  at  Madison,  and  after  seeing 
him  in  the  'express,'  to  ride  again  forty  miles  in  this  bitter 
weather,  over  the  'bluffs,'  and  preach  in  another  vacant 
parish  when  he  has  performed  the  journey,  I  rode  home 
alone,  feeling  that  not  one  of  his  clergy  should  dare  com- 
plain." A  report  from  Oshkosh  helps  to  fill  out  the  picture 
of  the  same  visitation ;  having  told  of  an  Ash-Wednesday 
sermon  there  by  the  bishop,  the  missionary  continued : 
"  The  next  day  he  pushed  northward,  although  it  was  very 
cold,  on  a  visit  to  the  Oneidas,  with  all  the  hopeful  cheer- 
fulness, apparently,  and  vivacity  of  youth.  Time  seems  to 
deal  very  gently  with  him.  Though  much  exposed,  he 
seemed  quite  well  as  he  passed  through  this  place  on  his  re- 
turn homeward." 

When  Kemper  resigned  the  oversight  of  Indiana,  one  of 
his  attached  clergy  there,  wishing  to  remain  under  his  juris- 
diction, and  having  received  an  appointment  to  the  chap- 
laincy of  Fort  Laramie,  was  transferred  thither  at  his  own 
request.  The  post  was  nearly  a  thousand  miles  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  this  circumstance  led  the  bishop  to  urge  a 
definition  of  the  western  boundary  of  his  mission,  which, 
some  thought,  extended  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  Be- 
fore many  summers  had  passed,  he  received  from  that  chap- 
lain the  following  account  of  one  of  those  shocking  trage- 
dies that  have  marked  with  blood  the  westward  movement 
of  the  frontier, — a  "massacre  of  a  young  officer  and  his 
entire  command   of   twenty-nine  soldiers  by  the   different 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     159 

bands  of  Indians  who  were  assembled,  near  here,  to  receive 
their  annual  presents.  Several  depredations  had  been  com- 
mitted by  them  during  the  season  of  emigration ;  and  on 
this  occasion  a  detachment  was  sent  to  the  Indian  villages 
to  claim,  as  prisoner,  a  recent  offender ;  and  a  hostile 
demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  detachment,  to  enforce 
their  object,  was  the  signal  upon  which  upward  of  fifteen 
hundred  warriors  rushed  upon  them,  and  in  the  most  brutal 
manner  assassinated  the  whole  command,  mutilating  their 
bodies  in  the  most  savage  and  barbarous  way.  They  then 
helped  themselves  to  the  goods  intended  for  them,  as  well  as 
rifled  the  stores  of  the  neighboring  traders  and  of  the 
American  Fur  Company ;  and  further  designed  to  attack 
and  burn  the  fort,  putting  to  death  every  white  person,  and 
actually  marched  on  this  fiendish  mission,  but  were  provi- 
dentially dissuaded  from  their  purpose.  The  shocking 
spectacle  of  the  mangled  and  gory  bodies  lying  over  the 
place  of  slaughter  was  exposed  for  two  days,  none  daring 
to  remove  or  attempt  to  inter  them.  Alarms  for  the  safety 
of  the  fort  and  its  remnant  of  inmates  were  frequent  by  day 
and  night  messengers,  and  we  all  huddled  together  for 
mutual  defence  in  the  ruins  of  the  old  adobe  walls,  fortify- 
ing our  position  as  well  as  we  could.  .  .  .  Had  the 
attack  been  at  first  made  upon  us,  we  must  all  have 
perished." 

Before  passing  to  a  fresh  period  of  our  history,  we  must 
duly  pause  to  mark  the  demise  of  that  old  hero.  Bishop 
Chase.  During  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  had  to  endure, 
beside  a  sore  burden  of  physical  infirmity,  many  losses  and 
anxieties  connected  with  Jubilee  College,  and  much  diffi- 
culty in  the  choice  of  an  assistant  bishop.  He  himself  was 
evangelical,  so  to  say,  by  heredity,  having  been  brought  up 
by  Puritan  parents  (and  this,  by  the  way,  is  the  ultimate 


160         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

explanation  of  his  preference  of  a  sylvan  location,  far  from 
the  corrupt  world,  for  his  colleges).  Having  been  asked  to 
express  his  sentiments  regarding  a  new  "Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Evangelical  Knowledge  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,"  he  replied  that  he  had  no  objection  to  it,  for  its 
title  was  in  accordance  with  the  gospel,  and  its  founders 
were  good  men, — such  men  as  Bishops  Meade  and  Elliott 
favoring  its  institution.  He  declared  that  in  choosing 
Henry  John  Whitehouse  as  his  successor,  he  had  been  actu- 
ated by  a  desire  to  secure  "an  evangelical  man."  His 
choice  was  confirmed  by  a  special  convention  called  to  meet 
in  September,  1851, — but  straightway  arose  an  outcry  about 
"undue  influence," — nothing  short,  in  fact,  of  a  charge  of 
simony.  There  was  talk  of  payments  of  money,  and 
pledges  exacted  from  certain  electors ;  and  so  Chase's 
episcopate  closed  in  Illinois,  as  in  Ohio,  amid  most  unedi- 
fying  controversy.  It  transpired  that  he  had  had  funds  for 
defraying  the  expenses  of  that  special  convention,  which  he 
had  employed  as  Constantine  employed  his  in  providing  for 
the  traveling  expenses  and  entertainment  of  the  bishops 
convened  at  Niccea. 

There  was  another  version  of  the  reason  of  the  bishop's 
selection,  engendered  amid  the  party  conflicts  of  later  years. 
It  was  said  that,  having  been  informed  that  Dr.  Whitehouse 
possessed  a  fortune  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  (and  three 
thousand  a  year  went  much  further  then,  before  values  had 
been  affected  by  Californian  gold  and  the  civil  war).  Chase 
exclaimed  with  emphasis  :  "  Let  the  godly  man  be  elected  !  " 
The  invention  is  only  of  value  as  indicating  what  some 
people  were  ready  to  believe ;  but  if  any  mercenary  motive 
sullied  the  purity  of  Whitehouse's  election,  the  subsequent 
troubles  in  the  diocese  were  a  sufficient  commentary  upon 
it,  and  only  what  might  have  been  expected.     And  yet  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     161 

possession  of  a  fortune  is  no  disqualification  for  the  episco- 
pal office. 

In  1844  Whitehouse  had  exchanged  his  rectorate  of  St. 
Luke's  Church,  Rochester,  for  that  of  St.  Thomas',  New 
York, — Upfold's  old  time  parish.  For  many  years  he  had 
been  an  active,  zealous  and  very  efficient  member  of  the 
committee  on  domestic  missions  ;  and  this,  in  the  estimation 
of  his  friends,  was  his  greatest  qualification  for  a  see  still 
essentially  missionary.  The  chairman  of  the  committee, 
our  old  friend,  Samuel  Roosevelt  Johnson,  wrote  him  an 
official  letter  of  congratulation  upon  his  elevation,  regret  for 
the  loss  the  committee  would  thereby  sustain,  and  grateful 
appreciation  of  the  valuable  services  he  had  rendered  it  in 
the  past.  He  was  consecrated  assistant  bishop  of  Illinois 
in  St.  George's  Church,  New  York,  November  the  twentieth, 
185 1,  by  Bishops  Brownell,  Eastburn,  Hawks,  Alonzo  Potter 
and  others,  including  John  Williams,  who  had  been  conse- 
crated just  three  weeks  before.  It  was  none  too  soon,  for 
before  the  first  anniversary  of  the  event.  Bishop  Chase  had 
left  the  world.  In  the  "Motto,"  a  diocesan  monthly  that 
he  had  edited  for  several  years,  the  old  bishop  published  a 
piteous  letter  in  the  winter  of  1852,  unfolding  his  trials  and 
tribulations  over  his  college  property :  mills  worth  many 
thousand  dollars  had  been  destroyed, — floods  had  done 
great  damage  in  the  lowlands,  and  the  last  summer's  wheat 
crop  had  failed  upon  the  uplands  of  the  domain, — while  to 
cap  the  climax,  part  of  the  property,  upon  which  buildings 
had  been  erected,  was  claimed  by  minor  heirs  of  the  former 
owner  by  virtue  of  a  deed  which  the  bishop  insisted  must 
be  spurious,  for  he  had  taken  every  pains,  when  purchasing, 
to  secure  a  clear  title.  Final  judgment  in  the  case,  however, 
rendered  in  Chicago,  was  adverse  to  his  cause,  and  he  had 
to  buy  over  again  or  compound  for  more  than  three  hundred 


162         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

acres  of  college  land.  Such  were  some  of  the  losses  and 
vexations  that  beset  the  closing  months  of  his  busy  life. 
He  died  on  the  twentieth  of  September,  leaving,  after  every 
deduction  has  been  made  for  faults  of  temper  and  method, 
an  imperishable  name  in  the  annals  of  American  Christi- 
anity. His  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  God's  acre  of  the 
college  that  he  loved  so  well  and  labored  for  so  untiringly ; 
upon  the  monument  that  marks  his  grave  is  carved  a  cross, 
with  his  life's  legend:  Jehovah  Jireh, — "the  Lord  will 
provide." 

As  Bishop  Whitehouse  moved  about  the  diocese  upon  his 
ensuing  visitation,  treading  in  the  dead  bishop's  footprints, 
he  was  a  witness  everywhere  to  the  "  profound  respect  and 
warm,  confiding  affection"  that  he  had  won.  Death 
cleared  the  vision  even  of  his  enemies,  enabling  them  at 
last  to  behold  him  in  the  guise  of  eternity.  In  his  episco- 
pate of  seventeen  years  in  Illinois,  he  had  consecrated  six- 
teen churches  and  confirmed  nearly  a  thousand  souls. 
Whitehouse  warned  the  diocese  that  henceforth  it  must  rely 
upon  its  own  resources,  for  he  could  not  bring  himself  to 
make  personal  appeals  for  outside  aid,  as  his  predecessor  had 
done,  by  travel  and  correspondence. 

The  new  bishop  came  to  Chicago  full  of  the  idea  of 
founding  a  cathedral  there.  By  the  end  of  the  year  1852 
he  had  negotiated  for  a  lot  for  an  episcopal  residence,  and 
in  February  following  for  an  adjoining  lot  for  a  cathedral 
church,  pledging  therefor  the  sums  of  six  thousand  and  four 
thousand  dollars  respectively,  the  latter  with  the  condition 
that  said  church  should  be  built  within  ten  years  from  date. 
In  his  address  to  his  convention,  shortly  after,  he  enlarged 
on  the  necessity  of  an  episcopal  fund  and  "  a  bishop's 
church  and  residence  in  the  city  of  Chicago;"  the  church 
to  have  free  seats,  daily  services,  and  to  be  the  centre  of  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     163 

charitable,  educational,  and  missionary  work  of  the  diocese. 
He  proposed  himself  to  build  the  bishop's  house,  and  in 
the  meantime  he  expected  the  diocese  to  excuse  some  delay 
in  his  taking  up  his  residence  within  it. 

To  this  date,  accordingly — 1853 — is  to  be  referred  the  in- 
ception of  the  first  cathedral  projected  in  the  American 
church.  The  proposition  was  subjected  to  a  fire  of  criti- 
cism ;  beside  being  novel  and  foreign,  it  seemed  to  many  to 
be  unnecessary  and  unnatural ;  a  popular  objection  was  that 
it  was  as  absurd  as  the  attempt  would  be  to  transplant  an 
English  oak.  Yet  angrier  criticism  was  excited  by  the  bish- 
op's continued  residence  in  New  York,  whence  he  came  to 
make  his  periodical  visitations.  His  excuse  was  that  he  had 
a  large  family  of  growing  sons  and  young  children  whose 
education  he  had  provided  for  and  who  must  have  a  home 
while  being  educated  in  New  York.  It  may  also  be  that 
Mrs.  Whitehouse  was  averse  to  moving  West.  Whatever  the 
rights  or  wrongs  in  the  case,  there  sprang  out  of  this  non- 
residence  a  luxuriant  controversy,  that  threatened  a  sever- 
ance of  relations  between  the  bishop  and  the  see.  The  Illi- 
nois convention  of  1854  "affectionately"  urged  him  to 
live  in  the  diocese :  he  took  this  as  implying  censure,  and 
proposed  to  resign  ;  the  next  convention  entreated  him  not 
to  take  that  step  :  in  reply  he  alluded  to  his  "  anxious  con- 
flict of  duty,"  (diocesan  with  domestic).  As  all  through 
these  years  he  was  in  receipt  of  no  episcopal  salary,  he 
thought  that  the  diocese  was  unjustifiable  in  its  criticisms. 
He  accused  the  rectors  of  Chicago  churches  of  Congrega- 
tionalism ;  they  complained  that  he  was  autocratic,  or  to  put 
it  plainly,  that  his  administration  (like  his  predecessor's) 
was  self-willed.  And  so  the  grounds  of  misunderstanding 
and  ill  feeling  were  deeply  laid  at  the  beginning  of  his  epis- 
copate. 


164         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

The  full  meaning  of  his  reference  to  Bishop  Ives'  lapse  to 
Rome  cannot  now,  in  all  probability,  be  discovered.  Bishop 
Kemper,  characteristically,  ignored  that  sad  event :  from  his 
addresses  no  one  could  ever  gather  that  it  had  occurred. 
Bishop  Upfold  animadverted  on  Ives'  "apostasy and  treach- 
ery" ;  and  Bishop  Whitehouse  said:  "He  has  gone  out 
from  us  because  he  was  not  of  us.  .  .  ,  I  can  honor 
obedience  to  conscience  even  when  it  leads  to  what  I  must 
count  apostasy  from  truth.  I  bow  in  sorrow  and  shame 
when  the  antecedents  and  issues  are  so  foul  that  we  take  ref- 
uge in  the  diseased  mind  as  a  grateful  explanation." 

During  these  years,  Vail  was  in  charge  of  a  church  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  repeatedly  served  as  deputy  to  general 
convention  from  that  diocese ;  Talbot,  having  while  yet  in 
deacon's  orders  organized  a  church  in  Louisville,  was  called 
in  1853  to  the  parish  at  Indianapolis,  and  the  year  following 
received  a  doctor's  degree  in  divinity;  Whipple,  who  hke 
Talbot  had  turned  from  a  business  career  to  the  ministry, 
was  ordained  and  appointed  rector  of  the  church  at  Rome, 
New  York,  and  was  doing  occasional  work  in  winter  as  a 
missionary  in  Florida  ;  Armitage  was  graduated  at  Colum- 
bia College  and  the  General  Theological  Seminary,  was 
ordered  deacon,  and  began  his  ministry  in  New  Hampshire 
and  Maine.  Lee  had  succeeded  Whitehouse  in  the  charge 
of  St.  Luke's  Church,  Rochester, — a  famous  evangelical 
parish.  In  1852  he  was  chosen  to  preach  the  annual  ser- 
mon before  the  board  of  missions,  at  its  meeting  in  Boston. 
He  took  as  his  text  the  forty-seventh  verse  of  the  twenty- 
fourth  chapter  of  St.  Luke's  gospel  :  "  Repentance  and  re- 
mission of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name  among  all 
nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem."  He  ranked  domestic  mis- 
sions first  in  the  order  of  importance  :  it  is  the  church's 
primary  duty  to  support  them.     But  while  charity  begins  it 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     165 

does  not  end  at  home  :  "  the  true  spirit  of  the  gospel  tends 
to  self-diffusion."  As  the  apostles,  while  they  began  at 
Jerusalem,  did  not  wait  until  every  one  there  was  converted 
before  they  pushed  on,  so  the  church  should  lose  no  time  in 
carrying  Christianity  to  the  heathen.  And  the  two  interests 
interact :  a  church  strong  at  home  can  do  effective  foreign 
work,  and  foreign  missions  increase  and  deepen  the  strength 
and  spiritual  life  of  the  mother  church. 

In  1853,  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  general  convention, 
Dr.  William  Ingraham  Kip  was  consecrated  missionary 
bishop  of  California,  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  by  Bishop 
Kemper,  assisted  by  Bishops  Upfold,  Whitehouse  and  others. 
It  was  the  fifth  consecration  in  which  our  hero  took  part. 
In  1854  he  could  report  that  there  were  in  Iowa  three  con- 
secrated churches,  and  two  more  nearly  ready  for  consecra- 
tion, eleven  clergymen,  and  a  call  for  another  one  for  the 
flourishing  village  of  Fort  Des  Moines,  and  confirmations 
aggregating  forty  persons  upon  his  last  visitation.  The 
parish  at  Dubuque  now  became  self-supporting.  He  pre- 
sided that  year  over  the  primary  convention  of  the  diocese, 
which  met  in  the  basement  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in 
Davenport.  He  bade  its  members  seek  for  their  ecclesias- 
tical head  a  man  of  God,  earnest,  patient  of  fatigue,  ready  to 
endure  hardship, — and  cautioned  them  against  the  intrusion 
of  any  worldly  motive,  such  as,  for  example,  the  income  of 
their  candidate.  Henry  Washington  Lee  was  the  choice  of 
the  convention  ;  his  character  could  stand  the  test  of  Kem- 
per's ideal,  and  he  was  further  recommended  by  his  sound 
and  sensible  missionary  sermon  just  quoted.  An  objection 
raised  by  Louderback,  that  there  was  not  the  requisite 
number  of  clergy  canonically  resident  in  the  diocese,  was 
overruled ;  Lee  accepted  the  call,  and  on  the  eighteenth 
of  October,  1854,  was  consecrated,  in  his  parish  church  at 


166         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERx\  CHURCH 

Rochester,  first  bishop  of  Iowa,  by  Bishops  Hopkins,  Mc- 
Coskry,  Whitehouse,  and  others.  It  was  the  only  consecra- 
tion of  a  diocesan  bishop  for  any  of  his  missionary  sees  in 
which  Kemper  had  no  part. 

In  1854  Bishop  Kemper  was  for  the  second  time  elected 
diocesan  of  Wisconsin,  and  now  accepted  the  election,  with 
the  proviso  that  this  should  not  involve  the  resignation  of 
his  missionary  jurisdiction.  An  unusual  number  of  remark- 
able men  participated  in  making  the  early  history  of  that 
diocese, — the  bishop  himself,  Adams,  Breck,  Cole,  and 
others  that  might  be  mentioned, — and  in  the  above  year 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  them  all  came  to  cast  in  his 
lot  with  it :  the  Reverend  James  DeKoven.  He  was  born 
in  Middletown,  Connecticut,  in  the  year  1831.  As  a  child 
he  appears  to  have  been  naturally  religious,  and  as  his  mind 
developed  he  gave  evidence  of  a  rare  combination  of  quali- 
ties,— active  imagination  and  acute  intellect ;  so  that  it  has 
been  said  that  the  temperaments  of  the  poet  and  the  lawyer 
met  in  him.  His  course  at  Columbia  College  was  remark- 
ably successful ;  he  won  a  high  reputation  for  character  and 
scholarship,  and  for  readiness  and  skill  in  debate.  Imme- 
diately after  taking  his  bachelor's  degree,  in  the  summer  of 
185 1,  he  entered  the  General  Theological  Seminary;  and 
there  his  zeal  and  talents,  rapidly  unfolding,  made  him  a 
marked  man.  He  manifested  his  enthusiasm  for  teaching 
by  gathering  a  class  of  poor  boys  from  the  city  streets. 
They  met  every  Sunday  afternoon,  and  he  succeeded  in 
holding  their  attention  by  interweaving  tales  of  adventure 
with  his  religious  instruction.  He  became  so  deeply  inter- 
ested in  this  work  that  for  a  time  he  was  inspired  w^ith  the 
idea  of  forming  an  associate  mission  in  one  of  the  worst, 
poorest,  and  most  crowded  districts  of  New  York.     Failing 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     167 

in  this,  he  turned  his  gaze  westward.  Having  been  gradu- 
ated in  theology  in  the  early  summer  of  1854,  he  was  or- 
dered deacon  by  Bishop  Williams  of  Connecticut,  and,  de- 
clining two  inviting  offers  at  the  East,  accepted  a  position  at 
Nashotah  as  tutor  in  Ecclesiastical  History,  in  connection 
with  mission  work  at  the  neighboring  village  of  Delafield. 
He  speedily  gave  fresh  evidence  of  his  zeal  for  church  edu- 
cation by  starting  a  parochial  school  at  the  latter  place.  In 
1855  ^^  was  advanced  to  the  priesthood  by  Bishop  Kemper, 
in  Nashotah  chapel. 

The  same  year,  ground  was  broken  for  the  first  permanent 
building  at  that  seminary, — Bishop  White  Hall ;  funds  for 
the  erection  of  which  had  been  collected  by  Bishops  Kemper 
and  Upfold.  Its  name  bore  witness  to  Kemper's  loving 
memory  of  his  old  preceptor,  and  was  doubtless  designed  to 
vindicate  Nashotah's  loyalty  to  American  tradition,  and  to 
set  at  rest  the  floating  rumors  about  Romanizing  tendencies 
at  the  school. 

The  bishop  reached,  this  year,  the  extreme  northwestern 
point  of  his  diocese, — the  new  settlement  of  Superior,  where, 
for  a  wonder,  the  church  was  first  upon  the  ground  and  its 
building  the  first  place  of  public  worship.  While  sailing  upon 
the  lake  of  the  same  name,  he  was  caught  in  a  sudden  and 
violent  storm  ;  his  fellow-passengers  were  beside  themselves 
with  fear,  expecting  every  moment  to  go  to  the  bottom ; 
but  the  bishop  exhibited  the  perfect  self-possession  of  faith ; 
his  soul  was  calm  in  the  consciousness  that  he  was  going 
upon  God's  work,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  fearful  commotion 
of  the  elements  he  was  not  afraid. 

There  is  little  to  add,  further,  to  the  story  of  the  church's 
extension  throughout  Wisconsin.  It  was  a  period  of  healthy 
growth,  of  the  lengthening  of  cords  and  strengthening  of 
stakes.     In  1856  the  parishes  at  Fond  du  Lac  and  Water- 


168         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

town  became  self-supporting,  and  these  and  other  similar 
evidences  of  increasing  strength  make  up  the  staple  of 
diocesan  history  for  several  years.  In  1857  a  movement 
for  the  endowment  of  the  episcopate  was  begun. 

In  1859,  upon  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Park,  James  De- 
Koven  assumed  the  office  of  warden  of  Racine  College, 
leaving  Nashotah  House  only  to  draw  more  tightly  the 
bonds  between  the  two  institutions ;  and  at  Michaelmas  of 
the  same  year  Bishop  Kemper  laid  the  corner  stone  of  the 
tasteful  Gothic  chapel  at  Nashotah. 

Beyond  the  borders  of  Wisconsin,  the  bishop  repeatedly 
visited  Marquette,  in  the  northern  peninsula  pertaining  to 
Michigan  ;  and  his  work  in  Minnesota  during  this  lustrum 
corresponded  to  that  in  Iowa  in  the  preceding  one.  He 
also  visited  Kansas ;  his  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  interests 
of  that  territory  was,  no  doubt,  what  determined  him  not 
yet  to  resign  his  missionary  jurisdiction.  The  gaze  of  the 
whole  country  was  turned  upon  Kansas ;  the  bill,  passed  by 
congress  in  1854,  to  organize  it  and  Nebraska  into  territo- 
ries, threw  them  both  into  the  political  arena  to  be  scrambled 
for  by  free  soil  and  slavery  partisans ;  and  the  following  year 
saw  a  prelude  to  the  civil  war  upon  the  prairies  of  Kansas. 

The  winter  of  1855-56  was  very  severe,  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  destitute  settlers,  in  that  time  of  border  warfare, 
beggar  description.  From  both  territories  came  appeals, 
that  winter,  for  the  ministrations  of  missionaries  of  the 
church  ;  and  the  cry  from  bleeding  Kansas  wrung  the  heart 
of  a  noble  clergyman  of  Connecticut,  the  Reverend  Hiram 
Stone.  As  soon  as  his  resolution  to  exchange  his  pleasant 
parish  at  Essex  for  the  toils  of  a  missionary  in  the  agitated 
territory  became  known,  and  he  was  accepted  by  the  mis- 
sionary bishop,  St.  Paul's  parish.  New  Haven,  volunteered 
to  provide  his  support.     So  great  was  the  confusion  and  so 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     169 

hot  the  strife  upon  the  border,  that  Bishop  Kemper  directed 
him  to  remain  awhile  in  Wisconsin,  until  he  himself  could 
reconnoitre.  In  July,  1856,  the  bishop  set  forth,  was 
joined  by  Bishop  Lee  at  Des  Moines,  and  together  they 
traveled  to  Council  Bluffs,  crossed  the  Missouri  river,  and 
trod  for  the  first  time  the  soil  of  Nebraska.  Omaha  was 
then  a  canvas  city;  it  had  not  reached  its  second  anni- 
versary, yet  it  numbered  considerably  over  a  thousand  souls, 
who  found  shelter  in  booths  and  tents.  The  first  service  of 
the  church  there,  conducted  by  both  the  bishops,  was 
attended  by  a  throng  of  people ;  Bishop  Lee  preached,  and 
afterward  Bishop  Kemper  administered  the  communion  to 
six  persons.  He  then  moved  southward,  visiting  Bellevue 
and  Florence,  where,  as  well  as  at  Nebraska  City,  he 
secured  lots  for  church  building,  and  entered  Kansas, 
which  he  had  not  seen  for  eighteen  years.  He  preached  at 
Doniphan  and  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  at  the  latter  post 
confirmed  an  officer  and  administered  the  Holy  Eucharist. 
He  held  service  at  the  neighboring  Leavenworth  City,  and 
at  Lecompton  (then  the  seat  of  the  territorial  government) 
baptized  an  infant.  At  Atchison  he  secured  two  lots  for  the 
church.  Beside  these  points,  he  visited  Palmetto,  Topeka, 
Brownsville,  Lawrence,  (where  there  were  as  yet  no  church 
people  to  be  found),  and  Council  City,  where  he  read  both 
morning  and  evening  prayer,  preaching  at  both  services,  and 
confirming,  in  a  log  cabin  :  and  only  did  not  administer  the 
communion  because  no  wine  could  be  obtained.  Beside 
these  public  and  official  duties  of  holding  service,  preaching, 
and  administering  the  sacraments,  which  he  punctually  per- 
formed whenever  opportunity  offered,  the  bishop  was  also 
often  able  to  appear  in  the  beautiful  character,  so  congenial 
to  him,  of  a  missionary  pastor,  consoling  the  bereaved, 
visiting  the  sick  and  dying,  and  burying  the  dead. 


170         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Wherever  he  went,  he  scrupulously  avoided  all  reference 
to  the  surrounding  civil  strife ;  and  this  course  won  much 
popular  approval. 

The  summer  was  intensely  hot,  and  through  lack  of  fresh 
and  wholesome  food  the  bishop  contracted  a  prevalent  com- 
plaint known  as  "land  scurvy."  It  was  the  first  serious 
breach  in  his  health ;  he  was  nearly  sixty-seven  years  of  age, 
and  was  never  afterward  quite  as  well  and  strong  as  before ; 
but  that  tour  was  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  the  diocese 
of  Kansas. 

Upon  his  return  to  Wisconsin,  he  directed  Mr.  Stone  to 
make  Leavenworth  his  headquarters,  and  to  itinerate  thence. 
For  some  time  the  congregation  at  that  place  worshipped  in 
a  third-story  room,  which  during  the  week  was  used  for  all 
sorts  of  purposes,  theatrical  exhibitions  included.  The 
town  was  growing  rapidly,  and  rough  and  vicious  characters 
abounded. 

In  default  of  action  by  the  general  convention,  the  pre- 
siding bishop,  Brownell,  recommended  to  Bishops  Kemper 
and  Lee  that  they  should  give  episcopal  oversight  to  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  respectively,  their  expenses  to  be  defrayed  by 
the  board  of  missions.  In  accordance  with  this  understand- 
ing, our  hero  again  visited  his  appointed  field  in  the  spring 
of  1857,  and  on  the  nth  of  May  had  the  pleasure  of  laying 
the  corner  stone  of  a  church  at  Leavenworth,  named  for  the 
mother  parish  in  New  Haven,  St.  Paul's.  He  was  much 
enfeebled  by  the  hardships  of  the  tour. 

1856  was  a  bubble  year,  in  which  money  flowed  freely, 
and  all  manner  of  schemes  for  spending  it  were  devised. 
The  church  shared  the  stimulation  of  the  sanguine  business 
world ;  congregations  began  to  build  and  repair  churches, 
and  called  rectors  with  promise  of  generous  salaries ;  and 
even  the  missionary  board,  in  novel  and  welcome  contrast 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     171 

with  its  customary  monotony  of  patlietic  appeal,  expressed 
its  gratification  at  the  offerings  for  the  cause,  which  were 
larger  and  more  liberal,  both  from  parishes  and  individuals, 
than  ever  before.  In  the  summer  of  1857  the  bubble  burst ; 
an  abrupt  stop  was  put  to  much  railroad  building  and  like 
enterprises ;  and  the  church  suffered  from  the  financial 
depression,  especially  in  the  new  states,  with  whose  sanguine 
spirit  she  had  become  imbued,  and  like  which  she  had 
embarked  upon  undertakings  that  now  withered  under  the 
sudden  drought  of  capital.  Many  a  church  remained 
unfinished,  many  a  salary  unpaid.  But  there  is  no  ill  with- 
out its  compensation ;  loss  and  suffering  brought  men  to 
their  senses,  making  them  realize  their  dependence  upon  the 
invisible ;  and  the  year  1858  beheld  one  of  the  widest  waves 
of  religious  revival  that  ever  swept  over  the  land.  All  the 
evangelical  denominations  made  multitudes  of  converts,  and 
many  accrued  to  the  church,  especially  in  the  diocese  of 
Iowa,  presided  over  by  the  evangelical  Lee.  The  growth 
of  that  diocese  was  phenomenal, — a  threefold  increase,  more 
or  less,  in  only  a  little  more  than  three  years  !  In  the  winter 
of  1858  Bishop  Lee  could  report  twenty-five  clergymen  and 
thirty  parishes  where,  at  his  coming,  there  were  eight  and 
twelve  respectively.  His  episcopal  fund,  which  started  in 
1854  with  three  thousand  dollars  subscribed  by  his  eastern 
friends,  rolled  up  in  three  years  to  upward  of  thirty  thousand. 
The  missionary  at  Des  Moines  offered  a  suggestion  :  that 
rectors  of  eastern  parishes  should  travel  west  and  see  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  the  church  there,  "instead  of 
spending  so  much  time  and  money  in  going  to  Europe  for 
sight-seeing."  He  believed  that  the  missionary  cause  would 
be  greatly  promoted  by  such  visits.  Professor  Francis 
Wharton,  of  Kenyon  College,  made  an  evangelical  expe- 
dition into  Iowa,  in    1857,  every^vhere  distributing  bibles, 


172         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

prayer-books,   and   publications  of  his  school  of  religious 
thought. 

The  progress  of  the  church  in  Minnesota,  if  not  as  rapid 
and  striking,  was  healthy  and  steady.  Here  too  the  evan- 
gelicals picketed  their  men,  but  did  not  succeed  in  securing 
a  majority.  The  careers  of  Breck,  Wilcoxson  and  the 
young  Knickerbacker  chiefly  arrest  attention.  This  lustrum 
saw  the  failure  of  Breck' s  work  among  the  Indians,  and  the 
luial  discomfiture  and  downfall  of  his  monastic  ideal.  He 
marked,  with  many  a  melancholy  shake  of  the  head,  how 
his  unmarried  assistants  "threatened  love";  and  before 
long  he  himself  succumbed.  On  the  nth  of  August, 
1855,  he  committed  the  grand  betrayal,  and  was  married  to 
Jane  Maria  Mills,  (the  missionary  already  referred  to,  in 
one  of  his  letters  above  quoted).  So  much  for  '-'the  sys- 
tem." The  sale  of  ardent  spirits  to  the  Indians,  which 
went  on  unchecked  by  an  indifferent  or  feeble  government, 
had  exceedingly  disheartening  consequences.  Under  the 
goad  of  strong  drink,  the  Indian  became,  for  the  time  being, 
a  maniac,  and  rushed  headlong  into  all  manner  of  sins  and 
crimes,  so  that  it  seemed  as  if  in  a  moment  a  rum-seller  could 
level  with  the  ground  the  painfully  constructed  fabric  of 
years  of  evangelizing  and  civilizing  work.  There  was  a 
standing  feud,  moreover,  between  the  Sioux  and  the  Chippe- 
was,  among  whom  Breck  had  elected  to  labor ;  and  in  the 
year  1857  it  rose  to  a  pitch  that  neutralized  the  effect  of  all 
his  efforts,  and  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  remain  in 
that  part  of  the  territory.  He  accordingly  retreated  south- 
ward, and  started  a  fresh  mission  at  Faribault,  and  in  con- 
nection with  it  a  school  which  he  named  for  the  American 
episcopal  pioneer.  Bishop  Seabury.  This  he  designed  as 
the  basis  of  a  theological  seminary, — a  plan  which  had  to 
encounter   the    opposition  of   his  old-time   colleague,   Dr. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     173 

Adams,  his  successor  at  Nashotah,  Dr.  Cole,  and  even  of 
his  bishop.  These  all  held  that  Nashotah  House  was  the 
seminary  of  the  whole  northwest,  and  that  no  other  institu- 
tion of  the  kind  was  needed  there.  This  disagreement 
moved  Breck  to  tears,  but  did  not  alter  his  opinion ;  and  in 
the  year  1858  he  went  east,  to  solicit  funds  for  his  school. 
The  tour  revealed  how  deeply  his  career  had  stirred  the 
heart  of  the  church,  for  it  was  like  a  triumphal  progress  in 
which  one  ovation  succeeded  another. 

The  same  year.  Bishop  Lee  was  absorbed  in  the  task  of 
founding  a  college  in  his  diocese,  to  be  named  for  the  patron 
bishop  of  the  evangelicals, — Griswold.  It  was  located  at 
Davenport  and  incorporated  in  1859.  Kenyon,  Kemper, 
Jubilee,  Racine,  Griswold, — almost  every  western  diocese 
had  its  collegiate  experiment  in  its  salad  days. 

It  was  Timothy  Wilcoxson  who  first  pointed  out  the  im- 
portance of  Faribault  as  a  site  for  a  mission.  That  faithful 
and  indefatigable  itinerant  sowed  the  seed  of  many  a  flour- 
ishing parish  in  southern  Minnesota.  His  central  station 
was  at  Hastings,  where,  after  several  years  of  effort,  he  was 
rejoiced  to  have  a  small  wooden  church  of  Gothic  design 
ready  for  consecration  by  Bishop  Kemper,  by  the  name  of 
St.  Luke's,  in  1857.  In  accordance  with  his  recommenda- 
tion, a  missionary  was  appointed  for  Winona  that  year ; 
and  in  1858  the  Reverend  Edward  Randolph  Welles  came 
from  Western  New  York  to  make  good  proof  of  his  ministry 
at  Red  Wing. 

In  1855,  the  missionary  at  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  re- 
ported that  he  had  begun  to  hold  evening  services  and  that 
he  had  secured  a  lot  for  a  church  at  the  rapidly  growing 
village  of  ISIinneapolis.  A  parish  was  organized  there  and 
subscription  toward  a  church  building  begun  in  the  spring 
of  the  following  year,  and  in   the  summer  the  Reverend 


174         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

David  Buel  Knickerbacker,  a  native  of  New  York  state, 
began  his  long  and  splendidly  successful  ministry  in  Minne- 
apolis. He  had  just  been  graduated  at  the  General  Semi- 
nary and  ordered  deacon  by  the  bishop  of  New  York. 
Under  the  inspiration  of  his  zealous  cooperation  the  build- 
ing of  a  place  of  worship  progressed  rapidly,  and  the  com- 
pleted fabric,  of  wood,  in  the  Gothic  style,  was  consecrated 
by  the  missionary  bishop,  by  the  name  of  the  Church  of 
Gethsemane,  on  the  third  Sunday  in  Advent.  Only  two 
months  after,  the  congregation  made  an  offering  for  domes- 
tic missions.  In  less  than  a  year  the  number  of  communi- 
cants increased  from  seven  to  fifty-three;  the  church  was 
filled  to  overflowing  at  every  service ;  and  all  indebtedness 
was  paid  off.  On  a  Sunday  in  July,  1857,  the  devoted 
young  rector  was  advanced  to  the  priesthood,  in  his  new 
church,  by  Bishop  Kemper. 

Minnesota  attained  to  statehood  in  1858,  but  it  was  the 
wake  of  the  panic ;  the  current  of  immigration  was  checked, 
and  no  money  could  be  had  to  develop  the  resources  of 
the  new  state.  The  embryo  diocese,  however,  continued 
steadily  to  grow;  there  was,  inevitably,  much  suffering 
among  the  missionaries,  yet  more  kept  coming  in,  and  there 
were  places  for  all ;  by  the  end  of  the  year  there  were 
twenty  clergymen  connected  with  the  diocese.  The  serious 
spirit  induced  by  the  hard  times  contributed  to  the  growth 
of  the  church,  as  did  also  the  rivalry  of  ecclesiastical  parties 
for  the  possession  of  the  field.  Bishop  Kemper  visited 
Minnesota  twice  a  year,  as  a  rule;  and  in  1859  he  presided 
at  a  convention  called  to  elect  a  diocesan  bishop.  Party 
spirit  ran  high,  but  both  sides  could  unite  upon  Henry 
Benjamin  Whipple,  and  he  received  the  suffrages  of  the 
convention.  "The  contest  during  the  election,"  wrote 
Kemper,  "was  an  earnest  one,  conducted  by  men  who  in 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     175 

the  fear  of  God  thought  for  themselves,  who  were  uninflu- 
enced by  any  worldly  considerations,  and  determined  to 
elect  one  who,  like  themselves,  possessed  the  pioneer  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  for  the  love  of  Christ.  .  .  .  They  will 
soon,  I  trust  in  God,  have  in  their  midst,  and  for  life,  an 
apostolic  Bishop  of  their  own  unanimous  and  hearty  choice, 
and  under  whose  administration,  I  believe,  the  Diocese  will 
flourish  as  a  garden  of  the  Lord." 

The  bishop  was  able  to  adhere  to  his  resolution  to  visit 
Kansas  annually.  He  was  there  in  November,  1858, — but 
it  was  too  late  to  accomplish  much ;  the  autumn  rains  had 
begun,  and  unusually  heavy  ones  at  that,  and  the  roads 
were  impassable.  The  following  summer  he  returned,  and 
visited  every  parish  and  mission.  At  Leavenworth  he  held 
an  ordination,  at  Wyandott  consecrated  a  church,  and  at 
these  and  several  other  places, — Lawrence,  Lecompton, 
Manhattan, — preached,  confirmed,  and  administered  the 
communion.  He  visited  Topeka,  Junction  City,  Fort  Riley, 
Ossawattomie,  Paola,  Olathe  and  other  points,  preaching  at 
all.  There  were  then  nine  clergymen  in  the  territory,  in- 
cluding the  chaplains  at  the  forts,  and  at  the  request  of  the 
majority  he  convoked  and  presided  at  an  assembly  that 
proved  to  be  the  primary  convention  of  the  diocese.  It 
met  at  Wyandott  in  August,  and  in  spite  of  the  bishop's 
dissuasives  (he  thought  the  step  was  premature,  and  his 
forecast  proved  correct),  formed  a  diocesan  organization 
and  applied  for  admission  to  general  convention. 

There  was  great  excitement,  that  year,  over  the  discov- 
ery of  gold  in  what  was  then  the  western  part  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Kansas,  known  as  "the  Pike's  Peak  country,"  and 
thousands  of  adventurers  poured  into  that  desolate  region. 

And  now  at  last  the  time  had  come  for  our  noble  mission- 
ary to  put  off  his  harness  ;    increasing  years  and  failing 


176         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Strength  warned  him  that  he  must  transmit  to  younger 
shoulders  the  care  of  all  his  remaining  churches  beyond  the 
Mississippi, — that  he  must  leave  it  to  younger  men,  in 
future  time,  to  enter  the  vast  regions  that  stretched  away 
northwestward  and  south  westward,  far  beyond  the  utmost 
bound  of  his  original  jurisdiction.  In  October,  1859, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  meetings  of  general  con- 
vention that  were  ever  held  took  place  in  Rich- 
mond, Virginia ;  and  there  the  bishop-elect  of  Minnesota 
was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Kemper,  assisted  by  Bishops 
Cobbs,  Whitehouse,  Lee,  and  others.  There  too  our  hero 
rendered  his  last  report,  and,  with  a  parting  plea  for  the 
Indian  work,  for  "  Dacotah  "  and  the  population  about 
Pike's  Peak,  laid  down  his  charge  in  the  following  words  : 

"  I  now,  with  deep  emotion,  tender  to  the  Church  my 
resignation  of  the  office  of  Missionary  Bishop,  which,  un- 
sought for  and  entirely  unexpected,  was  conferred  upon  me 
twenty-four  years  ago.  Blessed  with  health,  and  cheered 
by  the  conviction  of  duty,  I  have  been  enabled  to  travel  at 
all  seasons  through  Indiana,  Missouri,  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and 
Minnesota,  and  partly  through  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 

"  My  days  must  soon  be  numbered,  for  in  less  than  three 
months  I  will  be  seventy  years  old.  As  age  advances,  I 
trust  I  have  an  increasing  love  for  our  Divine  Master,  and 
that  Church  for  which  he  shed  his  most  precious  blood." 

The  grand  result  of  that  quarter  of  a  century  of  labor 
was  thus  summarized  by  the  committee  on  domestic  mis- 
sions : 

"  When  Bishop  Kemper  was  appointed  Missionary  Bishop, 
in  1835,  with  jurisdiction  over  Missouri,  Indiana,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  Iowa,  neither  of  which  was  an  organized  Diocese, 
there  was  but  one  of  our  clergy  and  one  church  in  Missouri, 
one  clergyman  and  one  church  in  Indiana,  and  neither  church 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     177 

nor  clergyman  in  Wisconsin  or  Iowa.  Twenty-four  years 
have  passed  away,  and  by  God's  blessing  on  the  Church,  he 
now  sees  Missouri  a  Diocese,  with  its  Bishop  and  twenty- 
seven  clergy ;  Indiana  a  Diocese,  with  its  Bishop  and  twenty- 
five  clergy ;  Wisconsin,  his  own  Diocese,  with  fifty-five 
clergy ;  Iowa  a  Diocese,  with  its  Bishop  and  thirty-one 
clergy ;  Minnesota  an  organized  Diocese,  with  twenty  clergy ; 
Kansas  but  just  organized  as  a  Diocese,  with  ten  clergy ; 
and  the  territory  of  Nebraska,  not  yet  organized  as  a  Dio- 
cese, with  four  clergy ;  in  all  six  Dioceses,  where  he  began 
with  none,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  clergymen 
where  he  was  at  first  sustained  by  only  two." 


It  remained  for  general  convention  to  make  provision  for 
the  missionary  remainder  of  Kemper's  old  jurisdiction, 
which  was  now  extended  to  cover  the  enormous  tract  of 
country,  boundless  plain "  and  towering  mountain  range, 
comprised  to-day  in  the  states  and  territories  of  Nebraska, 
North  and  South  Dakota,  Montana,  Wyoming  and  Idaho, 
Colorado,  Utah,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  and  presumably 
Nevada,  unless  that  was  in  Bishop  Kip's  charge, — alto- 
gether a  diocese  of  almost  a  million  square  miles  !  Cer- 
tainly, it  was  a  day  of  magnificent  distances.  This  stu- 
pendous charge  was  put  upon  the  shoulders  of  Joseph 
Cruikshank  Talbot,  who  by  his  energy,  ability,  and  zeal,  and 
especially  by  his  power  to  make  himself  all  things  to  all 
men,  seemed  to  be  marked  for  it  both  by  nature  and  grace. 
He  was  consecrated  in  his  parish  church,  Indianapolis,  on 
the  15th  of  February,  1S60,  by  Bishop  Kemper,  assisted 
by  Bishops  Hawks,  Upfold,  and  others.  In  picturesque  al- 
lusion to  the  fact  that  his  jurisdiction  embraced  all  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  that  was  not  included  in  that 


178         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

of  any  other  bishop,  Talbot  used  laughingly  to  speak  of 
himself  as  the  "  Bishop  of  All  Out-Doors." 

He  lost  no  time  before  brushing  the  eastern  fringe  of  his 
vast  domain,  paying  a  visitation  to  Nebraska  and  Dakota, 
and  planning  a  long  journey  overland,  by  military  posts  like 
Fort  Laramie,  to  Salt  Lake,  hoping  to  visit  Pike's  Peak 
on  his  return, — plans  to  which  the  outbreak  of  civil  war 
put  an  abrupt  quietus.  It  is  not  generally  known  that  the 
wave  of  secession,  after  surging  up  and  down  the  Potomac 
and  Ohio  valleys  and  across  Missouri  and  Kansas,  broke  in 
foam  upon  the  foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  In  the 
first  year  of  the  war  a  sharp  struggle  secured  Colorado  to  the 
union,  but  its  rich  mineral  deposits  made  it  so  desirable  for 
the  Confederacy  that  bodies  of  armed  men  from  Texas 
made  repeated  raids  into  it,  keeping  everything  in  a  state  of 
commotion,  and  exciting  the  Indians  by  the  news  that  their 
great  white  father  was  no  longer  at  Washington  but  at  Rich- 
mond. The  petty  chief  at  the  old  wigwam  had  lost  his  power, 
they  said,  and  his  medicine  was  of  no  good.  In  spite  of  such 
disturbances,  or  taking  advantage  of  a  temporary  respite 
from  them,  Talbot  set  out  in  1863  upon  a  tremendous  tour, 
that  amounted  to  seven  thousand  miles,  through  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Utah  and  Nevada.  Thousands  of  British 
converts  to  Mormonism  crossed  the  plains  that  year,  "  firm 
in  the  faith  of  their  abominable  heresy.  All  seemed  child- 
like and  deeply  imbued  with  religious  veneration,"  testified 
the  missionary  at  Omaha,  who  beheld  them  pass:  "I  have 
never  yet  conversed  with  a  lay  Mormon  whom  I  believed  to 
be  a  hypocrite."  No  mission  of  the  church  could  be 
started  in  Utah ;  no  street  or  field  preaching  was  allowed 
therein,  and  no  house  could  be  hired  for  service  in  Salt 
Lake  City, — which  outwardly,  said  Talbot,  "  is  the  most 
moral,    orderly,  and    quiet   city   I   have   ever   seen."     No 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     179 

saloon,  gambling  den  or  brothel  existed  in  that  community 
of  fifteen  thousand  souls, — "yet  its  inner  life,"  went  on  the 
same  remarkable  witness,  "  is  most  shocking  to  the  Chris- 
tian sense.  Polygamy,  open,  unblushing,  and  defiant,  ex- 
ists in  Utah."  In  1864,  the  border  and  Indian  troubles 
reached  their  climax ;  parties  of  emigrants  were  massacred 
by  the  savages,  their  bodies  horribly  mutilated,  and  their 
bones  left  to  bleach  upon  the  plains  of  Colorado,  Kansas, 
and  Nebraska. 

There  was  civil  war  meantime  in  the  diocese  of  Illinois. 
Too  many  biographers  yield  to  the  temptation  to  produce 
"  edifying  "  lives  by  the  suppression  of  truth,  by  smoothing 
out  every  wrinkle ;  there  prevails  in  this  species  of  writing 
an  effeminate  shrinking  from  plain  facts,  a  tendency  to  gloss 
them  over  ;  important  controversies  are  hushed  up  by  side- 
long reference  to  "certain  difficulties."  But  it  cannot  be 
that  bishops,  priests,  and  prominent  laymen  would  indulge 
in  controversies  if  it  were  wrong  to  do  so ;  how  then  can  it 
be  wrong  to  recount  them  ?  If  it  were  wrong,  why  did  they 
engage  in  them  ?  It  is  becoming  less  and  less  advisable  or 
possible  for  biographers  to  commit  these  sins  of  omission ; 
people  will  not  rest  content  until  all  "  difficulties  "  have  been 
sifted  to  the  bottom.  They  have  an  ineradicable  suspicion 
that  there  must  be  something  the  matter  with  a  man  Avho  is 
always  giving  and  taking  offence,  who  is  always  in  hot  water, 
and  only  extricates  himself  from  one  controversy  to  plunge  into 
another.  Such  a  career,  they  instinctively  feel,  is  an  index 
to  a  spirit  of  self-seeking,  whether  what  is  sought  be  power 
or  money.  Bishop  Whitehouse  repeated  in  Illinois  much  of 
the  troublous  experience  of  his  predecessor  there  and  in 
Ohio ;  and  one  cannot  but  believe  that  there  was  something 
wrong  in  the  temper  or  methods  of  both  bishops  as  well  as 
in  the  temper  of  their  dioceses.     By  the  year  i860  the  feel- 


180         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ing  against  Whitehouse  had  reached  its  height ;  he  came 
nearer  than  he  reaUzed  to  adding  one  more  to  the  Hst  of 
episcopal  trials  that  make  the  church  history  of  that  genera- 
tion painful  reading. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  early  in  his  episcopate  he  had 
contracted  for  certain  lots  of  land  for  a  cathedral  church 
and  episcopal  residence,  in  Chicago.  After  only  two  years, 
the  lots  had  so  increased  in  value  (they  were  on  the  south- 
east corner  of  Wabash  avenue  and  Jackson  street)  that  the 
original  owner  refused  tender  of  payment  for  them,  openly 
alleging  said  rise  in  value  as  his  reason  for  so  doing. 
Meantime  the  nature  of  the  city's  growth  in  that  direction, 
rendering  them  less  suitable  for  his  purpose,  disposed  the 
bishop  to  effect  some  compromise, — against  which  the  stand- 
ing committee  of  the  diocese  put  itself  on  record.  Some 
years  later,  the  deadlock  still  continuing,  all  the  clergy  of 
Chicago  advised  a  compromise,  to  forefend  the  aggravation 
of  litigation.  With  this  land  controversy  was  connected 
that  other  one  over  the  bishop's  non-residence;  and  by  1859 
that  had  become  so  bitter  that  the  general  convention  took 
cognizance  of  it,  and  resolved  that  bishops  should  live  in 
their  dioceses.  In  February,  i860,  accordingly,  Whitehouse 
leased  a  domicile  in  Chicago ;  in  April  following,  he  sold 
his  home  of  sixteen  years  in  New  York  ;  and  in  June  agreed 
to  annul  the  long-standing  contract  for  his  Chicago  property, 
and  to  reconvey  it  to  the  former  owner  in  exchange  for  six 
thousand  dollars.  This  is  the  famous  "  compromise  tran- 
saction," which  raised  a  storm  that  shook  his  episcopal 
throne.  He  was  accused  of  sacrificing  the  interests  of  the 
diocese;  his  course,  it  was  murmured,  was  "  open  to  mis- 
construction "  ("evil  construction,"  he  retorted);  he  was 
suspected  of  diverting  trust  funds  to  his  own  use.  He  be- 
came so  accustomed,  he  said,  to  "scurrilous  and  agitating 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     181 

articles  in  the  secular  and  religious  press,"  that  he  ceased  to 
pay  attention  to  them.  A  prominent  layman  named  Ker- 
foot  issued  a  pamphlet  in  which  he  charged  the  bishop  with 
a  "tendency  to  close  framing  of  bargains  and  contracts, — a 
shrewdness  singular  in  ecclesiastics."  His  plan  for  a  cathe- 
dral failed,  the  pamphleteer  averred,  because  men  detected 
a  second  thought,  some  financial  scheme  or  lust  of  power, 
working  in  his  mind  ;  and  our  "  social-ecclesiastical  system  " 
has  been  aggravated  by  his  non-residence.  A  noticeable  de- 
cline of  prosperity  at  Jubilee  College  was  attributed  to  his 
indifference ;  yet  more,  it  was  alleged  tliat  the  diocese  itself 
was  in  a  stationary  or  backward  condition  ;  and  on  the  floor 
of  convention  a  member  explained  that  contributions  to  dio- 
cesan missions  had  fallen  off  because  of  "non -residence," 
and  might  be  expected  to  cease  altogether  owing  to  the 
odium  of  "the  compromise  transaction."  The  bishop  ac- 
cordingly had  to  "explain  and  vindicate  "  his  course  before 
his  convention  ;  a  committee  of  inquiry  was  actually  pro- 
posed ;  and  he  prepared  a  protest  against  such  inquiry  as  an 
infringement  of  his  rights  as  an  individual  and  his  privilege 
as  a  bishop.  The  compromise  was  a  "personal  transac- 
tion," and  he  solemnly  protested  against  any  interference 
with  the  trust  in  his  charge  and  all  attempts  to  coerce  him 
to  abnegate  his  full  right.  He  feared,  he  said,  that  "fac- 
tious objects"  were  involved,  and  he  gave  warning  that 
nothing  should  overbear  his  "  inflexible  sense  of  right  and 
duty."  In  view  of  the  allegations  of  diocesan  deteriora- 
tion and  missionary  decline,  he  concluded  a  pamphlet  that 
he  published  in  September  with  a  vindication  of  the  diocese 
in  general  at  the  expense  of  the  Chicago  churches ;  the 
diocese  had  done  its  duty  nobly  and  given  evidence  of 
growth  and  strength,  but  in  the  nine  churches  of  its  chief 
city  only  seventy-six    souls  were  confirmed  and  only  one 


182         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

hundred  and  eighty-nine  dollars  contributed  to  diocesan 
missions  in  the  year  i859-'6o  :  "  if  there  has  been  any  suf- 
fering or  disappointment  among  the  missionaries,  I  have  to 
say,  frankly  but  kindly,  the  Chicago  clergymen  are  respon- 
sible." 

Here  were  all  the  materials  for  an  inflammable  pamphlet 
war.  The  Chicago  clergy  were  indignant  at  the  invidious 
attack,  and  caught  up  the  gage  of  battle.  "  That  the 
Bishop  should  even  seem  to  wrong  or  find  fault  with  the 
Chicago  Churches  or  clergy,  on  the  eve  of  his  advent 
amongst  us,  is  mysterious  enough ;  but  that  he  should  give 
such  an  erroneous  tabular  view,  in  face  of  data  to  which  all 
can  refer,  is  far  more  mysterious.  That  he  should  seem  to 
disparage  the  work  of  any  of  his  clergy  is  a  sad  fact ;  that 
he  has  misquoted  the  records  in  order  to  do  so  is  a  still  sad- 
der fact.  .  .  .  We  are  compelled  to  say,  '  frankly  but 
kindly,'  that  the  Bishop's  statements  are  erroneous. 
The  ditninution  was  fiot  in  Chicago,  as  the  Bishop  states,  but 
in  the  Country.  And  on  this  subject  we  feel  bound  to  say, 
what  we  should  not  under  other  circumstances  have  felt  our- 
selves compelled  to  say,  viz  :  That  tlie  Confirmations  in 
Chicago,  though  larger  in  proportion  to  the  whole  number 
than  last  year,  are  very  much  limited,  owing  to  the  plainly 
expressed  unwillingness  of  many  to  receive  the  holy  rite,  or 
allow  their  families  to  receive  it,  from  the  hands  of  our 
Bishop.  To  this  fact,  most  of  us  must  bear  reluctant  testi- 
mony. As  to  our  Diocesan  Missions,  we  can  only  hope  that 
this  attempt  of  the  Bishop  to  depreciate  our  efforts  will  not 
add  to  the  difficulty  we  already  contend  with,  in  persuading 
our  people  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  Missionaries 
he  nominates.  One  more  suggestion  :  if  the  Bishop's  state- 
ments are  erroneous  in  these  relations,  may  they  not  be  in 
other  particulars  ?  " 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     183 

This  document  was  signed  by  Robert  H.  Clarkson,  Clin- 
ton Locke,  Charles  Edward  Cheney,  and  all  the  other  rec- 
tors of  the  city  churches.  The  last  named  had  only  just 
accepted  a  call  to  Christ  Church;  in  his  convention  ad- 
dress, this  year,  the  bishop  had  borne  witness  that  "  during 
the  few  months  of  his  pastorship,"  Mr.  Cheney  had  "ex- 
erted an  encouraging  influence  in  that  promising  neighbor- 
hood." Little  did  he  dream  of  the  troubles  still  in  store 
from  that  settlement ! 

The  clerical  circular  brought  out  an  episcopal  broadside, 
under  date  of  October  lo,  rebutting  the  charge  of  inaccu- 
racy, pointing  out  that  though  the  bishop  had  the  right  to 
nominate  missionaries,  their  appointment  rested  with  the 
board,  and  that  actually,  aware  of  "  the  strange  jealousies  in 
which  his  lot  was  cast,"  the  bishop  had  been  so  cautious 
that  he  could  not  remember  having  ever  absolutely  nomi- 
nated a  single  missionary.  "  One  more  suggestion  :  If  the 
Bishop's  statements  are  correct  in  these  relations,  may  they 
not  be  in  other  particulars?"  He  condemned  the  "pas- 
sionate tone"  of  the  circular  as  "incongruous  with  the 
ministry  of  Christ.  .  .  .  The  mystery  will  change 
sides,  if  the  Clergy  who  have  so  peremptorily  affirmed  it  as 
not  only  existent,  but  done  with  malice  prepense,  should  not 
acknowledge  their  fault  and  return  to  a  better  mind."  The 
ground  of  the  whole  difficulty,  he  declared,  had  been  "a 
struggle  between  'Congregationalism'  and  'Episcopacy,'  in 
which  the  former  had  an  old  vantage  ground,  and  kept  the 
Bishop  at  bay,  thwarting  in  various  ingenious  modes  the 
fixing  his  seat  in  your  city.  .  .  .  Now,  however,  this 
has  passed.  Unassisted,  he  has  provided  himself  a  home, 
and  brings  his  family  with  him.  I  am  not  certain  that  you 
are  all  pleased  with  this  solution  of  the  vexed  question." 

A  friend  and   admirer  of  the  bishop's  now  rushed  into 


184         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

print  in  his  defence  in  a  circular  with  the  sensational  head- 
ing, in  large  letters,  "Episcopal  Troubles  in  lUinois."  "By 
many  it  is  well  understood  that  the  contest  against  his  non- 
residence  has  been  waged  for  the  sole  purpose  of  perpetuat- 
ing it.  ,  .  .  The  reason  for  his  non-residence  is  simply 
this  :  neither  the  diocese,  nor  Chicago,  nor  any  committee, 
has  ever  made  him  a  bona  fide  offer  of  a  residence,  rent 
free.  .  .  .  Had  a  suitable  house  been  provided  in 
Chicago,  Illinois  would  have  had  her  Bishop  and  his  fam- 
ily '  At  Home '  years  ago,  for  they  have  ever  been  ready 
and  willing  to  come.  But  had  the  '  Bishop's  Church  '  been 
erected,  as  it  should  have  been,  other  edifices  would  have 
remained  on  paper,  and  certain  rectors  been  '  overshadowed 
by  his  eminent  abilities.' 

' '  It  is,  without  controversy,  the  duty  of  every  rector  to 
favor  with  his  influence  and  means  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  diocese  whose  honors  and  emoluments  he  is 
sharing ;  but  several  of  the  rectors  at  Chicago  are  Trustees 
of  the  College  at  Racine,  and  especially  favor  Nashotah ; 
while  others  prefer  Kenyon.  This  being  so,  the  alms  and 
influence  of  Illinois  being  perverted  to  build  up  '\^'isconsin, 
how  can  the  low  estate  of  Jubilee  be  charged  to  the  neglect 
of  Bishop  Whitehouse?"  But  by  this  time  the  hoarse, 
rumor  of  approaching  war  began  to  drown  the  shrill  notes 
of  this  unseemly  squabble. 

To  one  who  looks  back  from  the  present  day,  the  great 
strength  of  the  democratic  party  in  the  lake  states  and  Iowa, 
up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  war  of  secession,  is  cause  for  as- 
tonishment. Up  to  i860,  Douglas  controlled  majorities  or 
large  minorities  in  all  of  them,  and  the  election  of  Lincoln 
in  November  of  that  year  marked  a  political  revolution  the 
cause  of  which  is  well  expressed  by  the  sentiment  of  the 
Iowa  legislature  :  That  the  state  was  bound  to  maintain  the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     185 

union,  which,  like  her  rivers,  should  be  inseparable,  by 
every  means  in  her  power.  Two  constraining  motives  were 
adduced  for  this  resolution  :  that  otherwise  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi  would  pass  under  the  control  of  an  alien 
power,  and  that  the  dangerous  principle  of  secession  would 
be  established.  If  at  any  time  the  eastern  states  were  to 
follow  the  example  of  the  southern,  those  in  the  midland 
would  be  left  without  free  communication  with  the  sea. 
Furthermore,  secession  removed  no  cause  of  war ;  slavery, 
with  the  difference  of  sentiment  it  engendered,  would  still 
exist ;  and  in  case  of  friction  there  would  be  no  arbiter  but 
the  sword.  The  only  reason  for  separation  was  the  triumph 
of  the  republican  party,  which  meant  the  exclusion  of  slavery 
from  the  territories  ;  and  how  access  to  them  would  be  at- 
tained by  separating  from  them,  how  the  South  would  win 
the  point  in  dispute  by  seceding,  was  difficult  to  see.  The 
vista  of  the  future  loomed  lurid  and  blood-red,  and  the 
whole  movement  seemed  one  toward  anarchy. 

"The  continued  existence  of  slavery,"  said  Governor 
Robinson  of  Kansas,  "according  to  its  own  partisans,  re- 
quires the  destruction  of  the  union.  New  guarantees  are 
demanded,  on  threat  of  secession ;  the  time  has  come, 
therefore,  for  the  destruction  of  slavery."  He  was  among 
the  first  to  see  this  so  clearly  and  to  express  it  so  forcibly. 
Kansas  became  a  state  in  January,  1861 ;  and  in  the  ensu- 
ing four  years'  struggle  contributed  more  men,  in  proportion 
to  her  population,  than  any  other  state  in  the  union,  to  put 
down  secession  and  slavery.  Those  were  years  of  confu- 
sion, incessant  alarm,  and  guerilla  warfare  upon  the  border; 
the  most  shocking  event  was  the  surprise  of  Lawrence  by  a 
body  of  Missourians  in  August,  1863,  the  massacre  of  nearly 
two  hundred  of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  burning  of  the  town. 

The  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  aroused  the  fiercest  feeling  in 


186         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Iowa,  and  that  state  furnished  sixteen  regiments  of  infantry 
and  six  of  cavalry  during  the  first  year  only  of  the  war. 
The  feeling  in  Wisconsin  also  was  at  fever  heat ;  companies 
were  formed  in  advance  of  demand  by  the  general  gov- 
ernment; camps  were  established  at  Milwaukee,  Madison, 
Fond  du  Lac,  and  Racine;  and  fully  half  of  the  voting 
population  of  the  state  served  in  the  war.  Minnesota  like- 
wise was  stripped  of  men  and  arms, — and  this  was  the  signal 
for  a  terrible  outbreak  of  the  Sioux  Indians ;  their  medicine 
men  predicted  that  they  would  reoccupy  their  ancient  lands, 
which  would  be  cleared  of  the  pale-faces ;  and  in  six  hours, 
on  the  1 8th  of  August,  1862,  eight  hundred  whites  were 
slaughtered.  By  the  panic  that  ensued,  Dakota  and  the 
northwestern  portion  of  Minnesota  were  practically  depopu- 
lated, and  immigration  was  checked  by  the  struggle.  Bishop 
Whipple  charged  the  government  with  creating  among  the 
Indians  a  worse  condition,  by  its  system  of  dealing  with 
them,  than  slavery  bred  among  the  negroes.  It  is  cheering 
to  know  that  many  settlers  were  saved  by  Christian  Indians, 
who  gave  warning  of  threatened  raids. 

In  July,  1863,  a  confederate  force  threatened  southern 
Indiana, — and  sixty-five  thousand  men  rose,  at  the  call  of 
Governor  Morton,  to  defend  their  state. 

When  the  great  conflict  was  over,  the  sentiment  of  the 
West  was  well  summed  up  in  the  words  of  a  distinguished 
lowan,  to  the  effect  that  "Iowa  is  not  relentless, — but  she 
does  ask  that  there  shall  be  no  confusion  in  our  national 
morality  between  right  and  wrong :  between  the  effort  to 
destroy  our  national  life  and  that  to  preserve  it, — between 
those  who  fought  to  break  up  the  union  and  those  who  died 
to  save  it." 

It  is  rather  remarkable  that  the  low-church  bishops  were 
most  outspoken  in  loyalty  to  the  union.     Bishop  Mcllvaine 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     187 

of  Ohio  was  the  most  pronounced  of  all ;  he  even  served  the 
government  on  a  semi-diplomatic  mission  to  England,  to 
seek  to  influence  the  sentiment  of  churchmen  there.  To 
many  it  seemed  as  though  his  zeal  impelled  him  into  a  con- 
fusion of  politics  and  religion.  "Our  duty  is  plain,"  said 
Bishop  Lee  of  Iowa:  "it  is  to  uphold  the  constitution  and 
the  civil  authority."  On  the  eve  of  the  struggle,  he  issued 
the  following  prayer  for  use  throughout  his  diocese : 

"  O  most  mighty  God  and  merciful  Father,  whose  wise 
and  righteous  Providence  governeth  all  things  in  heaven  and 
on  earth :  save  and  deliver  us,  we  humbly  beseech  Thee, 
from  the  dangers  to  which,  by  our  sins,  we  are  exposed,  and 
let  unity,  peace  and  concord  prevail  throughout  our  land. 
Spare  Thy  people,  good  Lord,  spare  them,  and  let  not  Thy 
heritage  be  brought  to  confusion.  Preserve  our  nation  from 
desolating  judgments,  from  discord  and  contention.  May 
we  be  a  united  and  happy  people,  showing  forth  Thy  praise 
and  dwelling  securely  under  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings. 
Pardon  our  manifold  transgressions,  and  deliver  us  from 
every  evil ;  or  if  Thou  shouldest  visit  us  in  judgment, 
remember  mercy ;  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  only  Mediator 
and  Redeemer." 

Bishop  Lee  then  turned  aside  to  lay  this  wreath  upon  the 
grave  of  Nicholas  Hamner  Cobbs  :  "  The  gentle  and  loving 
Bishop  of  Alabama  was  taken  from  the  evil  to  come.  His 
beautiful  life  is  a  precious  legacy  to  the  Church  and  to  the 
world." 

He  criticised  the  action  of  the  southern  dioceses,  in  form- 
ing an  independent  organization,  as  hasty,  irregular,  un- 
canonical  and  schismatical ;  ordinances  of  secession,  he 
maintained,  were  not  sufficient  to  justify  ecclesiastical 
separation,  for  a  revolution  must  be  crowned  with  success 
before  there  can  be  a  new  nation  and  a  national  church. 


188         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

As  the  war  went  on,  he  noticed  that  one  of  its  injurious 
effects  was  to  decrease  the  number  of  appHcants  for  con- 
firmation. 

Bishop  Whitehouse  had  his  tribute  to  pay  to  the  saintly 
Cobbs,  as  one  in  whom  "gentleness  and  firmness,  sim- 
plicity and  power,  zeal  and  discretion,  strength  and 
humility,  wisdom  and  innocence,"  were  beautifully  com- 
bined,— a  remarkably  penetrating  and  accurate  judgment. 
On  the  death  of  Bishop  Otey  he  remarked  :  "  the  diptych 
of  American  episcopacy  is  full  of  honorable  renown." 

The  relations  of  the  pioneer  bishops  of  the  South  and  West 
were  very  friendly ;  what  Kemper  and  Otey  were  to  each 
other  has  long  since  been  told,  and  both  Kemper  and  Upfold 
felt  for  Bishop  Elliott  the  highest  admiration  and  regard. 

Whitehouse  regarded  the  war  as  a  divine  chastisement  of 
a  spiritually  adulterous  people ;  we  are  a  corrupt  generation, 
— but,  he  added,  "the  government  must  be  sustained." 
Political  separation  illustrates  the  evil  of  heresy  and  schism. 
"  Intense  individualism,  despising  of  government,  mockery 
of  prescriptive  right,  insubordination,  disbelief  in  divine 
appointments,  are  working  their  fearful  consequences;  the 
discipline  of  this  trial  may  bring  about  an  improvement." 
But  he  observed,  as  the  war  went  on,  that  it  was  not  work- 
ing righteousness.  There  was  a  noticeable  decline  of  piety, 
reverence,  and  integrity ;  infidelity  was  on  the  increase,  or 
was  at  least  more  open.  Baser  elements  of  society  were 
brought  to  the  surface ;  large  fortunes  were  made  through 
the  war ;  and  there  was  much  apparent  temporal  prosperity, 
— but  beneath  all  was  a  disturbing  sense  of  suspicion  and 
insecurity.  The  tenure  of  ministers  was  more  uncertain, 
and  congregations  divided  upon  political  lines. 

After  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  and  the  capture  of  Vicks- 
burg  he  prepared  this  prayer  : 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     189 

'<  O  Lord  God  of  our  salvation,  we  bless  thy  holy  Name 
that  it  hath  pleased  Thee  to  hearken  to  the  prayers  of  an 
afflicted  people,  and  to  grant  us  such  present  help  as  causeth 
us  to  hope  for  thy  full  deliverance  from  our  miserable  con- 
fusions. .  .  .  May  thy  goodness  lead  us  to  repentance 
and  amendment  of  life.  .  .  .  Take  away  all  ignorance, 
hardness  of  heart,  and  contempt  of  thy  Word,  and  so  fetch 
home,  blessed  Lord,  those  who  have  gone  out  from  us,  that 
we  may  again  become  one  in  the  goodly  heritage  which 
Thou  gavest  to  our  Fathers. 

"  Do,  O  Lord,  for  our  country  and  for  us  all  what 
seemeth  to  Thee  good  in  thy  love  and  our  need.  .  .  . 
Visit  with  thy  consolation  the  sick,  the  wounded,  the 
prisoner,  the  poor  and  distressed,  and  all  deprived  of 
relatives  and  friends.  Be  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  the 
God  of  the  widow,  and  the  solace  of  parents  bereaved  of 
their  children." 

In  the  spirit  of  this  petition,  offerings  for  the  sanitary  work 
of  the  army  were  constantly  made  in  the  churches  of  Illinois. 

Upon  the  proclamation  of  a  national  fast  day,  to  be 
observed  on  the  last  day  of  April,  1863,  Upfold  set  forth 
this  special  prayer,  for  use  in  Indiana : 

"Almighty  God,  who  dost  command  us  to  humble  our- 
selves under  thy  mighty  hand,  that  Thou  mayest  exalt  us  in 
due  time  ;  we,  thy  unworthy  servants,  desire  most  humbly 
to  confess  before  Thee  in  this  the  time  of  sore  affliction  in 
our  land,  how  deeply  as  a  nation  we  deserve  thy  wrath  and 
indignation.  In  the  great  calamities  which  have  come  upon 
us  we  acknowledge  thy  righteous  visitation,  and  bow  down 
our  souls  under  the  mighty  hand  of  our  holy  and  merciful 
God  and  Father.  Manifold  are  our  sins  and  transgressions, 
and  the  more  sinful  because  of  the  abundance  of  our  privi- 
leges   and  mercies  under  thy  providence  and  grace.     In 


190         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

pride  and  living  unto  ourselves ;  in  covetousness  and  world - 
liness  of  mind  ;  in  self-sufficiency  and  self-dependence ;  in 
glorying  in  our  own  wisdom,  riches,  and  strength,  instead  of 
glorying  only  in  Thee ;  in  making  our  boast  of  thy  unmerited 
blessings,  as  if  our  own  might  and  wisdom  had  gotten  them, 
instead  of  acknowledging  Thee  in  all,  and  seeking  first  thy 
kingdom  and  righteousness ;  in  profaneness  of  speech  and 
ungodliness  of  life ;  in  polluting  thy  Sabbaths,  and  receiv- 
ing in  vain  thy  grace  in  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
we  acknowledge,  O  Lord,  that  as  a  nation  and  people  we 
have  grievously  sinned  against  thy  divine  Majesty,  provok- 
ing most  justly  thy  wrath  and  indignation  against  us. 
Righteousness  belongeth  unto  Thee,  but  unto  us  confusion 
of  face.  Because  thy  compassions  have  not  failed,  there- 
fore we  are  not  consumed.  Make  us  earnestly  to  repent, 
and  heartily  to  be  sorry  for  these  our  misdoings.  .  . 
May  those  who  seek  the  dismemberment  of  this  our  national 
union,  under  which  this  people,  by  thy  Providence,  have 
been  so  signally  prospered  and  blessed,  be  convinced  of 
their  error  and  restored  to  a  better  mind.  Grant  that  all 
bitterness  and  wrath  and  anger  and  malice  may  be  put  away 
from  them  and  from  us,  and  that  brotherly  love  and  fellow- 
ship may  be  mutually  restored,  and  established  among  us  to 
all  generations." 

Bishop  Hawks  declared  that  the  desolation  wrought  by 
war  was  to  be  seen  at  its  worst  in  a  border  diocese,  espe- 
cially, it  seemed  to  him,  in  his  own.  The  year  i86i-'62, 
he  moaned,  was  the  most  sorrowful  of  his  life,  so  far,  freighted 
with  anxiety  and  care ;  his  country  distracted,  the  church 
of  God  desolate:  "Missouri  bleeds  at  every  pore."  He 
noted  strangely  diverse  effects  of  the  conflict  upon  different 
parishes  :  some  were  excited  by  it  to  feverish  activity,  others 
were  apathetic  and  languid.     Some  congregations  were  di- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     191 

vided,  some  completely  scattered  and  extinguished.  Con- 
secrated buildings  were  used  as  barracks  or  otherwise  vio- 
lated. Many  of  the  clergy  left  the  distracted  diocese,  and 
their  places  were  not  supplied ;  young  men  went  off  to  the 
war,  and  there  were  no  candidates  for  the  ministry.  He 
lamented  that,  when  hard  and  active  work  would  have  been 
a  relief  to  him,  opportunity  to  make  visitations  was  taken 
away.  He  echoed  Bishop  Whittingham's  sentiment :  "  We 
have  sinned  in  proud  self-sufficiency  and  boasting  compla- 
cency in  our  institutions."  God  has  been  forgotten.  Under 
plea  of  "the  pressure  of  the  times,"  laymen  cease  to  sup- 
port public  worship. 

Bishop  Hawks  believed  that  churchmen  were  more  con- 
siderate toward  their  slaves  than  members  of  other  Chris- 
tian bodies  were;  and  he  defended  the  southern  dioceses 
against  the  charge  of  schism,  which  he  distinguished  as 
separation  from  the  catholic  church,  and  not  from  a  na- 
tional organization. 

The  diocesan  organization  of  Kansas  proved  to  be  imma- 
ture. In  i860,  its  clergy  elected  the  Reverend  Francis 
McNeece  Whittle,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Louisville, 
as  their  bishop, — but  the  laity  did  not  concur.  At  a  later 
convention,  the  Reverend  Heman  Dyer  of  New  York,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Evangelical  Knowledge  Society,  was  elected, 
but  declined  the  appointment.  The  troubled  diocese  then 
put  itself  under  the  charge  of  the  bishop  of  Iowa,  who  did 
his  duty  by  it  faithfully.  In  the  winter  of  1861  he  wrote 
over  four  hundred  letters  in  behalf  of  the  sufferers  from 
famine  in  Kansas,  and  obtained  from  twenty  dioceses  more 
than  five  thousand  dollars,  which  sum  was  administered  to 
the  most  needy  by  the  clergy. 

Many  parishioners  of  Trinity  Church,  Lawrence,  were 
slain  in  the  massacre  at  that  devoted  town,  in  1863,  "by 


192         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Quantrell  and  his  band  of  fiends,"  as  the  rector  bore  wit- 
ness. "  The  blood  of  our  slaughtered  brethren  at  Lawrence 
is  crying  to  heaven  for  vengeance,"  exclaimed  Bishop  Lee: 
"  May  your  homes  escape  the  desolations  of  the  destroyer." 
He  obtained  aid  from  the  East  for  the  survivors. 

Of  seventeen  parishes  and  missions  of  the  church  in  Kan- 
sas at  the  opening  of  the  war,  eight  became  defunct  during 
its  course. 

Equally  deplorable  was  the  effect  of  the  great  struggle 
upon  the  church's  educational  institutions.  The  president 
of  Kenyon  went  to  the  war,  and  in  two  years  the  attendance 
at  that  college  had  fallen  off  nearly  fifty  per  cent.  "Jubilee 
College  is  struggling  against  fearful  odds,"  said  Whitehouse, 
and  he  thought  that  its  only  hope  of  safety  lay  in  a  removal 
to  some  city,  preferably  Chicago,  which  would  solve  the 
problem  of  supplies,  labor,  boarding  of  students  and  visitors, 
etc.  "No  inducement  can  be  offered,"  he  continued, 
"  strong  enough  to  attract  and  hold  in  the  centre  of  an  iso- 
lated domain,  removed  from  all  social  excitement  and  con- 
venience, a  body  of  young  men  sufficiently  large  to  supply 
continuously  the  classes  of  a  University."  The  theological 
seminary,  he  maintained,  ought  by  all  means  to  be  moved 
to  Chicago.  Bishop  Hawks'  college  at  Palmyra  declined, 
and  its  property  was  sold ;  pledges  for  Griswold  College 
were  not  paid  ;  Racine  also  was  sorely  tried,  and  but  for  the 
heroic  exertions  of  its  warden  would  have  failed. 

In  1 86 1,  Bishop  Green  of  Mississippi  recalled  his  candi- 
dates for  orders  from  Nashotah.  Beside  such  decrease  in 
numbers  the  income  of  the  seminary  diminished  and  the 
debt  accumulated  to  such  an  extent  that  in  the  gloomy 
spring  of  1863  its  faculty  consented  literally  to  go  to  grass, 
— to  relinquish  all  salary,  and  live  upon  the  produce  of  the 
school  farm,  if  the  students  would  stay  and  work  it.     They 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     193 

had  just  expressed  their  readiness  to  attempt  it,  when  Dr. 
Cole  received  a  letter  that  brought  tears  of  relief  and  thank- 
fulness to  his  eyes.  It  enclosed  a  draft  for  three  thousand 
dollars,  with  promise  of  another  as  large,  from  a  friend  in 
the  East  who  did  not  wish  his  name  to  be  known,  and  who 
gave  as  his  reason  for  this  gift,  "  the  war."  With  praise  to 
God  and  gratitude  to  their  unknown  benefactor,  professors 
and  students  returned  to  their  accustomed  round  of  prayer 
and  study. 

Bishop  Kemper  was  heartbroken  at  the  news  of  the  bom- 
bardment of  Fort  Sumter,  but  according  to  his  principle  of 
reserve  on  such  matters  (and  a  man's  principles  crystallize 
with  advancing  years),  made  no  allusion  to  it,  or  to  the 
death  of  Cobbs,  at  the  meeting  of  his  convention  immedi- 
ately after.  He  charged  its  members  to  withdraw  their 
thoughts  from  the  world  and  its  transactions,  and  to  delib- 
erate on  eternity.  Excellent  advice, — but  being  too  nar- 
rowly interpreted,  his  addresses  in  war-time  are  marked  by 
a  tame,  insipid,  and  exclusively  local  tone  and  interest  at 
which  one  chafes.  Doubtless  abstraction  on  such  occasions 
from  worldly  passions  is  right  and  necessary,  but  to  ignore 
emotions  that  every  one  is  feeling,  to  maintain  rigid 
silence  about  matters  of  national  life  and  death,  and  issues 
that  wander  through  eternity,  seems  weak,  unnatural,  and 
even  perverse.  There  is  a  better  mean  than  the  extremes 
of  Mcllvaine  and  Kemper. 

The  bishop's  health  all  through  these  years  was  a  cause  of 
anxiety  to  his  family.  He  was  subject  to  what  his  daughter 
described  as  "lost  turns,"  which  came  on  with  a  vague 
feeling  and  resulted  in  transient  mental  vacancy  or  loss  of 
consciousness.  The  attacks  were  not  epileptic,  apoplectic  or 
paralytic  in  their  character,  but  were  akin  to  vertigo  ;  the 
first  came  on  just  after  he  had  participated  in  Talbot's  con- 


194         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

secration,— his  eldest  sister  had  for  some  time  had  similar 
seizures ;  and  naturally  his  family  was  anxious  every  time 
that  he  started  upon  a  visitation.  Strange  to  say,  these  at- 
tacks ceased  in  1865,  so  that  his  health  was  poorest  just 
during  the  war.  Yet  in  the  spring  of  1862  he  gave  an  ac- 
count of  himself  in  a  letter  to  a  lady  of  Philadelphia  that 
abounds  in  the  blitheness  that  was  his  charm.  He  explains 
that  his  time  is  taken  up  with  small  and  feeble  parishes,  to 
each  of  which  he  seeks  to  give  a  Sunday,  and  that  his  cor- 
respondence is  steadily  increasing,  so  that  he  is  as  busy  as  a 
bee.  Hence  he  expects  indulgence  :  "  I  know  you  will  par- 
don a  youngster  of  seventy-three.  Ask  me  all  imaginable 
questions  concerning  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  during 
the  early  years  of  my  ministry,  and  I  will  answer  them  with 
the  greatest  pleasure.  ...  If  you  will  have  my  photo- 
graph—I have  not  one  by  me  to  enclose,— my  children  con- 
sider the  one  in  which  I  am  unrobed  the  best. 

"  I  am  off  in  the  morning  for  Fond  du  Lac  on  Lake  Win- 
nebago, and  have  the  prospect  of  a  ride  on  Monday  over — 
no,  through — very  muddy  roads  in  an  old-fashioned  stage. 
But  these  advantages  are  not  hardships.  I  am  blest  with 
almost  uniform  health,  and  I  now  require,  after  the  experi- 
ence of  twenty-seven  years,  much  traveling  and  a  little 
roughness  to  keep  me  cheerful  and  happy.  Can  there  be  a 
greater  privilege  than  to  be  enabled  to  delight  in  doing  the 
duty  of  that  state  of  life  to  which  our  blessed  Lord  has 
called  us  ? 

"I  am  now  writing  by  candles  and  without  spectacles, — 
they  were  put  aside  six  years  since.  I  would  be  ashamed 
of  being  so  egotistic  had  you  not  called  me  out." 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  wrote  to  his  old  friend 
and  fellow-worker,  Dr.  Samuel  Roosevelt  Johnson,  address- 
ing him  by  his  pet  diminutive  : 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     195 

"  My  dearest  Rosey: 

"Your  letter  of  1 2th  July  ought  to  have  beenanswered,  butas  it 
did  not  require  immediate  attention,  and  I  was  at  the  time  very  busy 
in  visiting  parishes — and  was  not  as  I  used  to  be — for  considerable 
prostration  came  over  me  both  in  mind  and  body — so  far  indeed  that  I 
began  then  and  have  ever  since  acknowledged  myself  an  old  man — I 
laid  by  your  letter,  and  soon  after  started  on  a  tramp  which  was  quite 
equal  to  days  of  old.  After  many  most  uncomfortable  days  of  deten- 
tion I  arrived  in  sight  of  Superior  City,  now  a  very  decaying  place. 
I  say  in  sight,  for  when  two  miles  off  the  captain  of  the  Planet  de- 
clared the  storm  was  too  great  to  permit  him  to  go  into  the  harbor. 
So  a  few  of  us  young  fellows  went  down  by  a  rope  into  the  jolly  boat 
in  the  midst  of  a  heavy  rain — pushed  off  in  the  utmost  confusion  of 
baggage  and  passengers — after  a  while  got  out  some  oars — and  with 
waves  dashing  over  us  and  occasionally  aground,  were  finally  landed 
in  safety.  When  my  work  there  was  done — and  I  confirmed  ten — I 
had  the  choice  of  waiting  eleven  days  for  the  boat — or  coming  home 
by  land.  Four  days  in  most  primitive  vehicles  brought  us  to  St.  Paul 
in  the  midst  of  the  Indian  excitement.  Think  of  four  in  a  room,  two 
in  a  bed — and  live  stock  to  boot !  Was  it  not  equal  to  the  best  days 
of  Hoosierdom  ?  But  I  won't  detain  you  any  longer.  I  reached 
home  wonderfully  renovated — and  every  night  I  was  absent  I  slept 
well.     ... 

"  While  I  embrace  with  gratitude  and  much  pleasure  your  very  kind  in- 
vitation, I  cannot  but  think  there  is  some  doubt  about  my  coming  on. 
The  rebels  may  have  Philadelphia  and  even  New  York  in  possession 
by  that  time — or  I  may  before  starting  have  a  forgetfulness  which  has 
attacked  me  two  or  three  times  within  as  many  years,  and  which  tho' 
soon  over,  makes  my  children  anxious — and  should  it  return  would 
doubtless  induce  them  to  persuade  me  to  stay  at  home." 

A  church  paper  called  "The  North-Westem  Church" 
was  started  at  this  time,  for  the  dioceses  west  of  Ohio.  It 
was  adopted  by  the  diocese  of  Wisconsin  as  its  organ,  and 
was  recommended  by  Bishop  Whitehouse  as  evincing  "  abil- 
ity and  right  spirit." 

Five  of  Kemper's  clergy  were  now  serving  as  chaplains  in 


196         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

the  army,  yet  still  we  remark  an  obstinate  closing  of  his  lips 
about  the  war.  The  year  1863  went  by,  with  its  dejecting 
reverses  and  thrilling  successes,  and  still  he  issued  no  spe- 
cial prayer  for  use  in  his  diocese,  holding  that  the  book  of 
common  prayer  made  sufficient  provision.  From  his  public 
utterances  thus  far  one  would  never  imagine  that  his  coun- 
try was  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  existence,  the  most  tre- 
mendous of  recent  times,  but  would  draw  the  conclusion 
that  he  and  his  clergy  were  ecclesiastical  lotus-eaters,  medi- 
tating only  the  purchase  of  lots  for  parsonages  and  cemeter- 
ies,— that  Wisconsin  was  an  arbor  deeply  pleached,  where 
the  fiercest  storms  of  the  outer  world  died  away  in  a  merely 
unusual  rustling  of  leaves.  But  after  the  war  had  gone  on 
for  three  years  he  was  pulled  out  of  his  shrinking  policy ; 
his  ignoring  position  proved  untenable.  "  The  war  has  oc- 
cupied our  prime  attention,"  he  admitted,  in  1864:  "Indi- 
viduals and  families  have  removed.  Some  parishes  are  all 
but  destroyed,  and  want  of  laborers  is  painfully  evident. 
Yet  some  churchmen  are  growing  rich.  We  are  living  in 
fearful  and  trying  times ;  there  are  few  but  have  relatives 
and  friends  in  our  country's  service.  Yet  we  are  pledged 
in  the  house  of  God  to  draw  our  minds  from  worldly  sub- 
jects, and  especially  from  whatever  may  be  rightly  called 
mere  politics." 

One  cannot  but  feel  that  under  this  jealous  seclusion  of 
the  spiritual,  this  scrupulous  separation  of  ecclesiastical  from 
national  interests,  there  lay  that  mistaken  and  injurious 
contempt  of  political  life  and  inadequate  conception  of  its 
significance  that  give  point  to  the  sneer  of  one  who  was 
asked  what  Episcopalians  believe.  "  I  can't  tell  you 
what  they  believe,"  he  replied,  "  but  I  can  tell  you  what 
they  don't  believe  in  :  they  don't  believe  in  religion  and 
politics." 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    197 

Now  at  last  the  bishop  produced  a  special  prayer,  which 
is  certainly  a  model  of  its  kind  : 

"O  God,  who  art  the  blessed  and  only  Potentate,  the 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  the  Almighty  Ruler  of 
Nations,  we  bless  and  magnify  Thy  glorious  Name  for  all 
the  mercies  and  blessings  which  Thou  hast  bestowed  upon 
us  even  in  this  period  of  our  sorrow  and  humiliation.  We 
render  Thee  our  grateful  thanks  that  peace  and  order  have 
been  preserved  in  this  portion  of  our  land,  that  honest  labor 
has  been  plenteously  rewarded,  and  that  Thy  Church  has 
been  permitted  to  serve  Thee  in  all  godly  quietness.  En- 
able us  to  show  our  thankfulness  to  Thee  for  these  and  all 
Thy  other  mercies  by  sincere  repentance  of  the  sins  which 
have  justly  brought  Thy  chastening  hand  upon  us,  by  loving, 
active  sympathy  for  all  in  trouble  and  affliction,  by  earnest 
efforts  and  hearty  prayers  for  the  restoration  of  the 
unity,  peace  and  welfare  of  our  beloved  country,  and 
by  the  renewed  devotion  of  ourselves  to  Thee  in  an 
humble,  holy  and  obedient  walking  all  our  days ;  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  to  whom  with  the  Father  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  be  all  honor  and  glory,  world  without  end. 
Amen." 

The  manuscript  of  the  above  is  singularly  plain,  though 
colorless,  one  might  almost  say  characterless ;  the  letters 
a,  c,  e,  i,  m,  n,  o,  r,  s,  u,  w,  are  often  indistinguishable 
in  it,  the  looped  letters  being  often  left  open  at  the  top, 
and  all  degenerating  into  a  series  of  short  up  and  down 
strokes. 

Li  the  autumn  he  wrote  again  to  Dr.  Johnson,  at  the 
General  Theological  Seminary.  We  note  a  characteristic 
criticism  of  the  bishop  of  Maryland,  and  a  delightfully 
irreverent  reference  to  the  bishop  of  Indiana  (whose  disease 
was  the  gout)  : 


198         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

"  DeLAFIELD,  Wis'N,  22d  Oct.,  '64. 

"  My  own  dear  Rosey  : 

"  Among  other  missionaries  I  have  one  up  the  Mississippi  on  the 
borders  of  Minnesota.  It  was  my  intention  as  usual  to  visit  him  this 
spring,  but  the  river  was  so  low  I  determined  to  wait  for  more  water. 
Finding  that  apparently  I  would  wait  in  vain,  I  gave  notice  of  my 
coming,  but  the  P.  O.  department  proved  to  be  so  treacherous  and 
uncertain  that  my  voyage  was  delayed  many  weeks,  and  I  have  only 
now  returned  after  all  but  three  weeks'  wandering.  Here  among 
many  others,  I  find  your  favor.     .     .     . 

"  There  was  a  probability  of  my  being  in  New  York  about  this 
time  to  attend  the  semi-centennial  meeting  of  one  of  your  societies, 
but  my  detention  north  prevented — besides,  the  invitation  was  not 
quite  sufficiently  cordial  and  urging.  Next  year  I  shall  hope,  D.  v., 
to  be  in  both  the  great  cities  once  more  and  for  the  last  time,  in  all 
probability. 

"  Only  think !  Three  of  our  few  young  men  at  Nashotah  are 
drafted !  As  we  cannot  pay  for  them  we  contemplate  if  possible  ad- 
mitting them  to  orders,  as  they  are  all  seniors. 

"  I  believe  if  Mr.  Baker  would  come  here  at  once  he  could  obtain 
most  useful  employment.  Mineral  Point,  Watertown,  and  Manitowoc 
are  vacant,  besides  Christ  Church  in  Janesville ;  and  if  he  wished  to 
try  his  hand  at  missionating  I  could  give  him  a  choice  of  two  or  three 
stations. 

"  Dr.  Adams  says  that  Bishop  Whittingham  should  never  have 
left  the  Seminary.  All  his  friends  will  doubtless  rejoice  when  he 
returns.  He  threw  himself  into  the  pohtical  concerns  of  Maryland 
with  the  simplicity  and  thoughtlessness  of  a  child. 

"  I  occasionally  hear  of  and  see  Uncle  George.  He  is  brilliant, 
cross  and  diseased ;  and  I  fear  does  not  receive  that  respect  from  the 
clergy  of  his  diocese  he  so  richly  deserves. 

"  I  am  perhaps  as  busy  as  ever ;  and  altho'  I  do  not  do  as  much  as 
I  once  did,  I  have  infinite  cause  for  gratitude  and  praise  for  the  health 
I  enjoy  and  my  almost  entire  freedom  from  pain. 

"  Believe  me,  most  truly  and  affly.  and  forever  yours, 

"  Jackson  Kemper." 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  church  in  the  West  was 
stationary  or  retrogressive  throughout  the  war.     It  enjoyed 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     199 

many  compensating  advantages,  chief  of  which,  counter- 
balancing indeed  all  the  evils  wrought  by  the  conflict,  was 
the  abatement  of  ancient  prejudices  among  the  population. 
Division  along  political  lines,  superseding  for  the  time  all 
other  divisions,  had  a  wholesome  effect,  religiously,  in 
taking  men's  minds  off  from  points  of  ecclesiastical  differ- 
ence that  had  been  enormously  exaggerated  by  having 
long  been  favorite  subjects  of  feverish  controversy.  The 
war  put  a  quietus  upon  that  suspicion  and  dislike  of  the 
church  as  English,  that  was  an  inheritance  from  revolution- 
ary days.  Bishop  Upfold's  witness,  in  his  convention  ad- 
dress of  1863,  is  to  the  point : 

"  With  us  all  is  sober  prose  and  hard  labor.  Yet  we  are 
not  without  some  evidences  of  being  out  of  the  woods — at 
least  of  beginning  to  emerge.  Since  my  entrance  on  the 
Episcopate,  thirteen  and  a  half  years  ago,  sixteen  churches 
have  been  erected,  paid  for,  and  consecrated,  several  of 
them  elegant  and  substantial  structures  of  brick  or  stone, 
and  three  others  are  awaiting  consecration. 

"The  strong  prejudices  against  our  communion,  more 
prevalent  in  Indiana  than  perhaps  most  western  states,  ap- 
pear to  be  on  the  wane," — and  he  adduced  the  fact  that  of 
late  he  had  remarked  large  congregations,  largely  composed 
of  strangers,  during  his  visitations, — a  thing  unseen  and  un- 
heard of  at  the  beginning  of  his  episcopate, — affording 
opportunities  to  make  the  evangelical  doctrines  and  impress- 
ive services  of  the  church  better  known. 

Upfold  published  this  year  a  "  Manual  of  Devotions," 
modeled  upon  that  of  Henry  Thornton  of  Clapham,  with 
which  he  had  lately  become  acquainted  and  with  the  "  fervor 
and  evangelical  spirit  "  of  which  he  was  greatly  delighted, — 
as  that  was  modeled  on  the  book  of  common  prayer. 

The  war  had  a  benign  effect  in  distracting  attention  from 


200         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  AVESTERN  CHURCH 

the  episcopo-clerical  feud  in  the  agitated  diocese  of  lUinois. 
Frustrated  in  his  plans  for  a  grand  edifice,  Bishop  White- 
house  began  negotiations,  in  1861,  for  the  purchase  of  the 
Church  of  the  Atonement,  on  Washington  street,  Chicago, 
which  he  converted  into  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Sts. 
Peter  and  Paul.  The  year  after,  the  cathedral  organization 
was  completed  by  the  appointment  of  four  canons,  and  a 
lay  body,  consisting  of  eight  curators,  to  take  charge  of 
temporal  affairs.  The  treasurer  was  styled  "bursar"  ;  the 
title  "guild"  was  introduced  into  American  ecclesiastical 
terminology;  and  a  surpliced  choir  and  dignified  ritual 
were  introduced.  In  the  episcopal  address  to  convention  in 
1863,  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  "the  Bishop's 
Church"  had  been  beautified;  stained  glass  windows  had 
been  set  in  its  walls,  polychrome  decoration  applied  to  walls 
and  ceiling,  an  exquisite  snow-white  font  presented, — and 
antiphonal  chanting  was  the  rule. 

In  this  latter  year.  Dr.  George  David  Cummins  was  re- 
ceived into  the  diocese  of  Illinois  and  settled  as  rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  Chicago.  He  was  born  in  Dela\Yare  in 
1822.  His  father  was  a  member  of  the  church,  but  his 
mother  and  sisters  were  Methodists,  and  after  graduation 
from  Dickinson  College,  Pennsylvania,  in  1841,  he  became 
a  circuit  rider  in  their  communion.  Taste  for  a  liturgy  at- 
tracted him  to  the  church,  and  late  in  the  year  1845  he  took 
deacon's  orders,  in  the  evangelical  diocese  of  Delaware. 
He  served  successively  as  rector  of  churches  in  Norfolk, 
Richmond,  Washington,  and  Baltimore ;  and  received  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  divinity  from  Princeton  College.  On 
coming  to  Chicago,  he  became  a  close  friend  of  Dr.  Clark- 
son  and  Mr.  Cheney. 

In  1864,  a  committee  of  the  same  diocese  brought  into 
convention  a  sensible  report  about  Sunday-schools,  pointing 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     201 

out  that  their  two  chief  weaknesses  were  lack  of  seconding 
in  the  home,  and  of  proper  relation  to  the  church  through 
her  rectors.  In  every  parish,  the  rector  should  be  the  head 
of  the  Sunday-school,  and  should  conduct  a  normal  class 
for  teachers, — for  there  was  great  complaint  that  the  teach- 
ers themselves  were  not  taught,  and  consequently  their  in- 
struction suffered  grievously  in  the  mind  of  their  pupils  by 
comparison  with  that  given  in  the  day-schools.  There 
should  be  better  classification  or  grading,  that  advanced 
scholars  be  not  retarded  by  the  dull  and  negligent ;  and  it 
should  be  distinctly  understood  that  the  function  of  the 
Sunday-school  is  to  conduct  its  unbaptized  members  to  bap- 
tism, and  the  baptized  to  confirmation  ;  and  that  attendance 
at  its  exercises  should  by  no  means  be  regarded  as  a  substi- 
tute for  attendance  upon  the  services  of  the  church. 

In  his  address,  the  same  year.  Bishop  Whitehouse  raised 
a  note  of  warning  against  the  "licentious  and  rationalistic  " 
tendency  of  the  volume  entitled  "Essays  and  Reviews": 
the  inspiration  of  the  bible  and  everlasting  punishment,  he 
said,  are  not  matters  of  opinion ;  and  because  in  America 
the  Church  is  even  more  exposed  than  in  England  to  the 
"malaria  of  perverse  science,"  he  charged  his  clergy  to 
resist  demoralization  and  to  stand  for  the  plenary  inspiration 
of  the  scriptures. 

A  school  of  religious  thought  had  arisen  in  England  that 
found  its  philosophic  ground  in  the  doctrine  of  the  divine 
immanence  in  nature,  and  hence  was  regarded  with  sus- 
picion, dislike,  and  dread  by  adherents  of  the  transcendental 
schools.  It  was  undogmatic,  and  aimed  to  get  at  the  spiritual 
substance  of  religion  rather  than  to  dwell  upon  its  phenomena, 
— and  hence  was  called  hazy.  Everywhere  it  found  and 
asserted  natural  and  rational  elements  in  religion,  and 
affirmed  that  the  supernatural  and  natural  are  not  different 


202         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

in  kind, — and  so  was  accused  of  pantheism.  Its  most 
objectionable,  concrete  affirmation  probably  was,  that  every- 
one is  by  nature  a  child  of  God ;  which  seemed  to  be  in  flat 
contradiction  to  the  catechism,  and  to  undermine  the  accepted 
view  of  the  sacraments.  It  maintained  strongly  that  there 
was  a  human  element  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  scriptures, 
and  a  divine  element  in  the  sacred  books  of  other  peoples, 
and  hence  cultivated  with  ardor  the  new  sciences  of  Biblical 
criticism  and  comparative  religion, — seeming  to  its  elder 
rivals  to  be  merely  leveling  and  destructive.  Practically,  it 
sought  to  come  in  touch  with  the  progress  of  culture  and 
society,  to  establish  better  relations  with  natural  science  and 
philosophy,  especially  as  represented  by  German  thinkers, 
and  to  come  into  better  accord  with  the  state  and  with  this 
present  world,  so  as  to  be  able  to  influence  them.  Inevitably, 
it  was  charged  with  being  of  worldly  complexion  and  mo- 
tives, and  its  type  of  natural  piety  was  turned  into  ridicule 
as  "muscular  Christianity."  Essentially  and  at  its  best,  it 
was  simply  a  fresh  exemplification  of  the  quite  natural  and 
also  supernatural  principle  of  growth  and  change  in  religion, 
inevitable  in  the  application  of  old  truth  to  new  conditions, 
and  perfectly  consonant  with  scripture,  the  practice  of  the 
church,  and  common  sense.  But  as  it  was  expounded  in 
"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  it  did  undoubtedly  appear  to  be  of 
purely  critical,  combative  and  destructive  propensity.  A 
catena  of  sentences  from  the  once  famous  volume  will 
illustrate  what  has  been  said  : 

"Thorough  study  of  the  Bible,  the  determination  of  the 
limits  of  what  we  mean  by  its  inspiration,  and  of  the  degree 
of  authority  to  be  ascribed  to  the  different  books,  must  take 
the  lead  of  all  other  studies.  The  great  force  is  the  intellect. 
We  cannot  encourage  a  remorseless  criticism  of  Gentile 
histories  and  escape  its  contagion  when  we  approach  Hebrew 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     203 

annals.  The  essential  strength  of  the  religions  of  India, 
Arabia,  Hellas,  and  Latium  lay  in  the  elements  of  good 
which  they  contained.  Liberal  criticism  traces  revelation 
historically  within  the  sphere  of  nature  and  humanity. 
Confused  thought  and  furious  passions  disfigure  most  of  the 
great  Councils.  Some  reconsideration  of  the  polemical 
element  in  our  Liturgy,  as  of  the  harder  scholasticism  in  our 
theology,  would  be  the  natural  offspring  of  any  age  of 
research  in  which  Christianity  was  free.  Mr.  Darwin's 
masterly  volume  on  '  The  Origin  of  Species '  must  soon 
bring  about  an  entire  revolution  of  opinion  in  favor  of  the 
grand  principle  of  the  self-evolving  powers  of  nature.  An 
alleged  miracle  is  an  object,  not  an  evidence  of  faith.  Sub- 
scription to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  should  be  given  up : 
stronger  minds  are  reluctant  to  enter  an  order  in  which 
intellect  may  not  have  free  play.  A  national  church  is 
properly  an  organ  of  the  national  life.  The  Bible  contains 
erroneous  views  of  nature.  Natural  conscience  questions 
the  eternity  of  hell  torments.  Interpret  the  Scriptures  like 
any  other  book." 

Radical  as  these  sentiments  sounded  when  the  book 
appeared  in  i860,  it  is  still  difficult  to  understand,  at  the 
present  day,  the  frenzied  panic  they  created.  The  bishop 
of  Oxford  characterized  the  publication  as  a  "lurid  jet  of 
the  great  Antichrist "  ;  an  address  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  denouncing  it,  received  the  signatures  of  ten 
thousand  clergy ;  and  suits  were  brought  against  two  of  the 
essayists.  They  were  acquitted  by  the  privy  council,  in 
1864,  of  verbal  contradiction  to  the  Articles,  were  imme- 
diately condemned  by  convocation,  and  excitement  was  at 
its  height,  and  spread  to  America.  This  year  accordingly 
is  memorable  as  that  of  the  introduction  of  the  so-called 
Broad  Church  movement  into  the  American  church. 


204         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

We  have  seen  what  Bishop  Whitehouse  thought  of  it. 
Bishop  Upfold  also  took  the  alarm,  and  charged  his  con- 
vention as  follows  : 

"We  live  in  troublous  times,  requiring  of  us  great 
circumspection  and  care  in  our  responsible  calling.  It  is 
the  boast  of  many  that  this  is  an  age  of  free  thought  and  free 
inquiry ;  and  some  are  disposed  to  make  the  most  of  this 
assumed  liberty  of  opinion  and  doctrine,  and  run  it  into 
dangerous  licentiousness.  It  becomes  us  therefore,  my 
brethren  of  the  Clergy,  to  set  our  faces  as  a  flint  against 
this  disorganizing  spirit,  which  is  working  such  mischief  to 
the  cause  of  Christ  and  his  Church,  and  resist  all  temptations 
to  bold  theological  speculations  such  as  have  recently  become 
rife  across  the  Atlantic,  in  the  indulgence  of  pretentious 
intellectual  pride,  disposing  men  to  be  '  wise  above  what  is 
written,'  and  to  depart  ad  libitum,  from  the  recognized 
standards  of  the  faith,  our  creeds  and  articles  of  religion, 
which  are  all  founded  on  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith,  the 
inspired  Word  of  God.  Be  it  our  care  in  all  our  teachings 
to  avoid  all  such  vain,  rationalistic  philosophizing  and 
sentimental  fancies,  ,  .  .  display  of  captious  criticism 
on  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  or  any  other  ostentatious  in- 
tellectual display."  And  at  the  same  time  Bishop  Kemper 
warned  his  convention  that  there  were  now  "some who  call- 
ing themselves  by  the  name  of  Christ  dare  impiously  to 
assert  that  our  Blessed  Lord  did  7iot  cause  all  Holy  Scriptures 
to  be  written  for  our  learning,  and  that  therefore  we  may 
question  some  of  the  truths  of  that  inspired  volume  and  deny 
some  of  its  clearest  statements."  Shun  as  a  pestilence,  he 
exclaimed,  such  "pride  and  arrogance,  inordinate  self- 
conceit  and  total  want  of  reverence, — the  crying  sins  of  our 
age, — and  conform  to  the  minutest  injunctions  of  the  Prayer 
Book."     We  have  not  as  full  a  record  of  Bishop  Lee's  senti- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    205 

ments,  but  we  know  that  he  denounced  both  rationalism  and 
ritualism — which  was  also  just  beginning  to  rear  its  head — 
as  "dangerous  enemies  of  the  faith."  On  the  whole,  the 
evangelicals,  for  reasons  which  we  cannot  pause  to  elaborate 
here,  though  startled,  were  not  so  excited  and  unbalanced 
by  the  rise  of  the  new  school  as  their  rivals  the  high  church- 
men were.  Dr.  Vail  indeed  dared  to  think  and  to  proclaim 
that  the  church  needed  to  be  broadened. 

After  a  rectorate  of  several  years  at  Taunton,  Massa- 
chusetts, Vail  removed  to  Iowa,  toward  the  close  of  1863, 
to  assume  the  rectorship  of  Trinity  Church,  Muscatine.  In 
September,  1864,  the  convention  of  the  diocese  of  Kansas 
acted  upon  Bishop  Lee's  recommendation  to  proceed  to  the 
choice  of  a  bishop,  while  expressing  heartfelt  gratitude  to 
him  for  his  deep  interest  and  watchful  care  through  the 
years  of  utmost  depression  in  the  diocese.  A  committee 
nominated  Thomas  Hubbard  Vail ;  the  election  was  unani- 
mous ;  he  accepted  it,  and  was  consecrated  in  his  church  at 
Muscatine,  on  the  fifteenth  of  December,  by  Bishops  Kemper, 
Whitehouse,  Lee,  and  Bedell,  thus  becoming  the  first  diocesan 
of  Kansas.  It  was  the  first  consecration  that  took  place  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river. 

The  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  American 
church  in  the  years  immediately  after  the  civil  war  was  the 
breaking  up  of  Bishop  Talbot's  colossal  and  unwieldy  juris- 
diction, and  its  distribution  among  four  missionary  bishops. 
Bishop  Upfold  had  to  have  an  assistant.  Rheumatic  gout 
held  him  in  its  clutch.  For  years  he  had  struggled  against 
it,  but  in  1865  was  forced  to  surrender.  The  last  diocesan 
convention  he  attended  met  at  Richmond,  in  his  state,  in 
June  of  that  year.  Its  principal  business  was  to  elect  an 
assistant  bishop.     Talbot  was  universally  popular ;  the  peo- 


206         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

pie  of  his  old  parish  at  Indianapolis  were  intent  upon  getting 
him  back ;  and  he  received  and  accepted  the  election.  In 
July  following,  Upfold  consecrated  Grace  Church,  Indian- 
apolis ;  the  month  after,  he  held  an  ordination  to  the  priest- 
hood in  the  same  city,  on  both  occasions  remaining  seated 
while  preaching ;  and  these  were  his  last  public  official  acts, 
and  the  last  times  that  he  appeared  in  church.  Most  of  the 
remainder  of  his  life  was  spent  in  his  house,  in  a  wheeled 
chair.  At  the  meeting  of  general  convention  in  October, 
1865,  Talbot  was  formally  transferred  to  Indiana,  and  three 
missionary  bishops  were  appointed  for  his  old  jurisdiction : 
Robert  Harper  Clarkson  for  Nebraska  and  Dakota,  George 
Maxwell  Randall  of  Rhode  Island,  then  rector  of  the  Church 
of  the  Messiah,  Boston,  for  Colorado  and  adjacent  territor- 
ies, and  Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle  of  New  York,  for  Montana, 
Idaho  and  Utah.  Clarkson  was  consecrated  in  the  single 
church  of  which  he  had  been  rector — St.  James',  Chicago, 
— by  Bishops  Hopkins,  Kemper,  McCoskry,  Lee,  Whipple, 
and  Talbot.  The  absence  of  his  own  diocesan  from  the 
number  is  noticeable ;  it  was  an  open  secret  that  White- 
house  had  used  all  his  influence  in  the  house  of  bishops  to 
secure  the  appointment  for  liim,  and  thus  remove  the  sharp- 
est thorn  from  his  episcopal  pillow ;  he  knew  his  man, — 
that  Clarkson 's  sense  of  duty  would  constrain  him  to  accept 
such  a  mission.  Mr.  Tuttle  was  so  much  below  the  canon- 
ical age  that  his  consecration  had  to  be  postponed  until  1867. 
The  following  year,  at  the  meeting  of  general  convention, 
Ozi  William  Whittaker  of  Massachusetts,  then  rector  of  a 
church  in  Nevada,  was  appointed  missionary  bishop  of  the 
latter  state;  his  consecration  took  i)lace  in  1869.  Bishop 
Whittaker  had  temporary  charge  of  Arizona. 

This  domestic  missionary  expansion  is  interesting  to  us 
as  the  direct,   logical  outcome  of  Bishop  Kemper's  great 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     207 

work ;  but  it  had  yet  wider  bearings.  The  suppression  of 
the  war  of  secession  made  the  nation  buoyant  with  the  con- 
fidence of  conscious  strength,  and  this  vital  spirit  was  im- 
parted to  the  church.  Certain  it  is  that  at  this  period  the 
church  took  on  larger  proportions,  became  less  provincial 
and  Anglican,  more  continental  and  American,  and  was 
more  in  her  element  in  the  more  experienced  nation,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  latter  was  readier  to  receive  her  teach- 
ing and  adopt  her  practice.  In  the  five  years  after  the  war, 
twenty-three  bishops  were  consecrated  in  this  country,  com- 
pared with  sixty-nine  from  the  beginning  up  to  the  year 
1865  ;  that  is,  in  the  short  period  of  five  years  there  were  a 
third  as  many  consecrations  as  in  the  three-quarters  of  a 
century  before. 

Clarkson's  opposition  to  his  bishop,  whether  it  were  justi- 
fied or  not  by  the  latter' s  autocratic  policy,  could  not  but 
have  a  narrowing  effect  upon  his  nature,  which  now,  re- 
lieved of  every  such  negation,  expanded  grandly.  His  rare 
pastoral  faculty  now  had  ample  room  for  exercise,  albeit  in 
as  untoward  a  field,  so  it  was  said,  as  ever  Christian  bishop 
looked  upon.  The  extremes  of  temperature  upon  the  wide, 
unprotected  prairie  were  inimical  to  human  happiness  and 
life ;  once,  while  on  a  summer  visitation  in  Dakota,  Bishop 
Clarkson  had  to  endure  heat  of  the  prostrating  height  of 
one  hundred  and  four  degrees,  while  often  in  the  win- 
ter season  cold  waves  would  depress  the  temperature  in 
Nebraska  to  thirty  degrees  below  zero.  Nor  was  this 
all :  these  sharp  extremes  were  accompanied  by  violent 
disturbances  of  the  atmosphere,  by  "blizzards"  and 
tornadoes  that  proved  terribly  destructive.  One  of 
these  storms  injured  tAvo  churches  badly;  another  blew 
in  the  windows  of  some  mission  buildings  and  speedily  re- 
duced the  whole  group  to  a  piteous  wreck  ;  even  the  chapel 


208         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

bell,  weighing  four  hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  was  whirled 
far  away.  Population  was  in  the  migratory  stage :  a  mis- 
sionary could  report  that  he  had  found  five  hundred  souls 
and  a  large  hotel  in  a  town  only  three  days  old ;  and  as 
likely  as  not,  in  as  many  weeks  or  months  every  one  would 
have  moved  away.  Settlements  were  far  apart,  and  were 
largely  composed  of  young  men  who  had  come  out  to  seek 
their  fortune  (or  other  people's)  ;  there  was  scant  respect  for 
prerogative,  for  ancient  institutions;  every  man  had  to 
stand  upon  his  own  merits.  It  was  the  same  frontier  con- 
dition with  which  we  are  already  acquainted  j  Clarkson  re- 
peated in  Nebraska,  thirty  years  later,  Kemper's  experience 
when  he  first  came  west.  It  was  trying,  no  doubt,  but  it 
was  also  a  bracing  experience  to  the  right  kind  of  men,  such 
as  those  two  were. 

The  following  was  a  not  uncommon  kind  of  tour  in  the 
early  years  of  Clarkson' s  episcopate :  to  ride  in  his  own 
wagon  (for  it  was  before  the  day  of  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
road) over  the  pathless  prairie  all  day  long  without  seeing  a 
human  habitation,  guided  on  his  way  by  compass  only ;  to 
be  overtaken  by  a  furious  thunderstorm;  at  night,  after 
supping  on  whatever  food  he  had  brought  Avith  him,  to  sleep 
upon  the  ground,  under  his  wagon,  or,  if  he  were  very  for- 
tunate, to  find  a  shanty  in  whose  loft  he  might  take  shelter, 
and  from  a  wretched  bed  might  watch  the  stars  crossing  the 
cracks  between  the  boards  that  formed  an  apology  for  a 
roof;  after  such  a  trip,  to  reach  a  settlement  where  a  school- 
house  could  be  had  for  a  service ;  to  sweep  its  floor  and 
make  a  fire  with  his  own  hands ;  then  to  go  about  the  town 
advertising  the  service  and  urging  people  to  come ;  to  light 
the  building  with  candles  he  had  brought  for  such  an  emer- 
gency; to  conduct  evening  prayer  and  preach  one  of  those 
sermons  of  which  men  who  cared  little  for  religion  said  that 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     209 

they  never  heard  them  without  longing  to  be  better.  The 
people  were  desperately  poor,  and  could  do  nothing  for  the 
support  of  a  clergyman  ;  so  the  bishop  had  to  find  both  the 
man  and  his  salary,  and  had  to  be  content  with  such  ability 
as  he  could  get.  His  great  heart  and  hopeful  spirit  show 
through  the  words  of  one  of  his  early  addresses  :  "  The  con- 
ditions and  prospects  of  our  beloved  Church  are  very  en- 
couraging in  this  splendid  state  of  Nebraska, — as  fair  a  heri- 
tage of  the  Lord's  as  the  sun  anywhere  shines  on.  Nebraska 
will  soon  leap  to  the  side  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa 
in  population  and  wealth.  .  .  .  Congregations  who 
will  become  attached  to  the  Prayer  Book  and  the  Church 
may  be  gathered  in  any  rural  locality  of  the  state  "  ;  and  so 
he  urged  upon  his  clergy  that  every  one  of  them  should 
consider  himself  a  missionary  for  the  country  surrounding 
his  parish. 

In  1867,  the  territory  became  a  state,  and  Lincoln  was 
laid  out  as  its  new  capital,  by  politicians  Avhose  heads  were 
filled  witli  dreams  of  corner  lots,  and  fortunes  thence  ensu- 
ing. In  1868,  the  primary  convention  of  the  diocese  was 
held,  and  it  was  discovered  that  there  were  nineteen  clergy, 
thirty-two  parishes  and  missions,  and  about  seven  hundred 
communicants  composing  it.  It  was  admitted  into  union 
with  general  convention  immediately  after.  Clarkson  re- 
mained East  for  awhile,  to  unite  with  A^ail  and  Randall  in 
some  episcopal  consecrations,  and  to  plead  the  cause  of 
Nebraska  Avith  such  success  that  churches  in  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  Hartford,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  gave  him 
funds  for  namesakes  in  it. 

Bishop  Vail  noted  sharper  contrasts  of  wealth  and  pov- 
erty as  a  result  of  the  war,  and  also  an  increase  of  free- 
thinking  and  abatement  of  old  prejudices.  In  his  diocese, 
in  the  new,  agricultural  state  of  Kansas,  there  was  no  cap- 


210         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ital  to  draw  upon ;  the  immigrants  were  poor,  and  he  had 
to  depend  upon  aid  from  the  East  for  church-building  and 
payment  of  salaries.  He  felt  deeply  the  need  of  mission- 
aries ;  it  was  agonizing  to  him  to  see  the  church  being  left 
behind  by  the  population, — to  see  that  she  might  be  first 
upon  many  flourishing  fields,  and  through  lack  of  men  and 
means  to  be  unable  to  improve  such  splendid  and  transient 
opportunities.  He  wanted  to  found  parish  schools,  a  fe- 
male seminary  and  a  theological  school.  As  he  itinerated, 
he  would  hold  service  and  preach  in  town  halls  and  county 
courthouses,  and  Baptist  and  Methodist  societies  would 
sometimes  give  him  the  use  of  their  buildings.  On  a  visita- 
tion in  the  western,  sparsely  settled  part  of  the  state,  he 
took  provisions  and  fodder  with  him,  having  a  saddle  horse 
for  change  and  relief  beside  his  wagon.  Often  it  would  be 
too  hot  to  drive  by  day,  and  he  would  travel  by  night, 
camping  on  the  prairie  grass,  using  his  buffalo  robe  for  a 
bed, — a  necessary  protection  against  the  heavy,  chilly  dew 
that  fell  toward  morning.  Once  when  lost  on  the  prairie  he 
was  lighted  on  his  way  by  flashes  of  lightning  from  a  dis- 
tant storm.  Again,  he  made  a  tour  of  four  hundred  miles, 
taking  two  weeks,  in  stage,  carryall,  and  open  wagon, 
through  rain  and  burning  sun, — and  all  to  confirm  three 
persons.  It  was  worth  while,  he  said,  for  each  of  them 
might  prove  a  centre  for  a  congregation,  a  stone  in  the  spir- 
itual temple.  It  is  no  wonder  that  he  was  well  beloved 
throughout  both  state  and  diocese.  His  wife  won,  by  her 
good  works,  the  enviable  title  of  "  the  Angel  of  Kansas." 

In  1868,  Bishop  Vail  made  a  visitation  in  Missouri  at  the 
request  of  Bishop  Hawks,  who  was  in  failing  health  and 
died  soon  after,  in  St.  Louis,  at  the  age  of  only  fifty-five 
years,  broken  in  spirit  by  the  calamities  that  had  befallen 
his  diocese.     Whatever  the  cause,  he  wearily  and  despond- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     211 

ently  said,  Missouri  is  certainly  a  very  hard  field  for  church 
culture,  a  stony  vineyard,  its  clergy  the  worst  sustained  of 
those  of  any  diocese,  and  many  of  them  in  penury.  But 
for  his  private  means,  then  almost  exhausted,  he  could  not 
have  labored  there  so  long  as  a  bishop ;  his  visitations  often 
proved  costly  burdens. 

Vail  pronounced  his  obituary:  "Bishop  Hawks  was  a 
man  of  superior  talent  and  of  unusual  gifts  of  eloquence. 
With  a  high  sense  of  honor  and  of  gentlemanly  refinement 
he  united  the  lovely  characteristics  of  the  Christian  heart 
and  life."  And  Upfold  referred  to  his  death,  "after  a 
painful  and  protracted  illness,  superinduced  and  aggravated 
by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his  diocese  for  several  years 
past,  arising  from  the  convulsions  of  the  late  civil  war, 
which  created  almost  insurmountable  hindrances  to  the 
work  of  the  Church,  and  made  a  soil  always  ungenial  still 
more  unproductive." 

Bishop  Whitehouse  appealed  for  aid  for  the  prostrate 
church  in  the  South,  especially  in  South  Carolina,  where 
ten  churches  had  been  burned  and  communion  vessels  stolen 
during  the  war,  where  the  clergy  were  forced  to  labor  with 
their  hands  for  bread,  and  the  colored  race  seemed  to  be 
relapsing  into  heathenism.  He  observed  keenly  and  medi- 
tated much  upon  the  effects  of  the  civil  struggle  upon  the 
church  and  society  in  the  West.  Vice  flaunted,  character 
was  unsettled,  licentiousness  and  its  hellish  accompaniments, 
intemperance,  gambling,  and  profanity,  had  been  spread  by 
the  war.  We  need,  he  said,  in  this  "flush  sense  of 
strength,"  to  cultivate  humility,  and  to  remember  that  the 
church  never  has  been  or  can  be  popular  in  a  world  where 
her  Lord  is  not  enthroned.  Depreciation  of  the  marriage 
tie  was  spreading,  and  divorce  was  easy  and  frequent ;  the 
clergy  were  to  oppose  this  "  movement  of  infidel  socialism," 


212         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

of  corrupt  nature  and  animal  impulse,  by  refusing  to  assist 
at  the  marriage  of  a  divorced  person,  unless  it  were  the  in- 
nocent party  in  a  case  of  adultery.  The  demoralizing  con- 
sequences of  war,  however,  were  not  without  compensating 
accompaniments, — the  cloud  had  a  silver  lining ;  the  evils 
of  disunion  had  been  exposed,  and  a  deep  moral  impression 
created.  Military  discipline  was  conducive  to  order  and 
ceremonial  and  the  subordination  of  the  individual.  Thou- 
sands had  been  familiarized  with  the  prayer-book  by  its  use 
in  camp  and  hospital  and  on  shipboard  ;  and  all  these  cor- 
rective influences  favored  the  western  church.  The  bishop 
was  much  exercised  over  the  relation  of  the  church  to  so- 
ciety ;  the  whole  question  of  public  and  social  amusement, 
he  said,  was  very  pressing, — for  some  churches  were  being 
turned  into  clubs.  How,  he  asked,  shall  we  "employ  the 
social  element  without  pandering  to  worldliness  and  fri- 
volity "  ? 

He  returned  to  the  charge  against  the  Chicago  clergy  : 
there  had  not  been  a  single  candidate  for  holy  orders  from 
any  parish  in  Chicago,  trained  in  the  same,  during  his  epis- 
copate. He  called  for  a  clerical  training  school  and  a  chap- 
ter house  for  his  cathedral,  and  branched  off  into  a  learned 
excursus  on  deans,  cathedral  and  rural,  concluding  with  a 
recommendation  of  four  rural  chapters  for  his  diocese,  at 
Chicago,  Ottawa,  Peoria,  and  Springfield  respectively. 

In  1866,  he  was  engaged  in  extensive  travels  in  Europe, 
through  Spain,  Italy,  the  Scandinavian  countries,  and  Rus- 
sia, prosecuting  researches  into  the  validity  of  Swedish  or- 
ders and  the  relations  of  the  American  and  Grseco-Russian 
churches.  On  Candlemas  day,  1867,  being  the  guest  of 
Archbishop  Longley,  he  took  part  in  the  consecration  of 
three  missionary  bishops  in  Canterbury  cathedral.  The 
primate  was  contemplating  a  meeting  of  English  and  colo- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     213 

nial  prelates,  and  it  was  owing  to  his  guest's  representations 
that  the  plan  was  enlarged,  and  that  American  bishops  were 
included  in  the  invitation  to  the  first  Lambeth  Conference. 
Bishop  Whitehouse  preached  the  opening  sermon  of  the  con- 
ference, in  the  chapel  of  Lambeth  Palace.  The  degree  of 
doctor  of  divinity  was  conferred  upon  him  by  Oxford 
University  that  year,  while  the  University  of  Cambridge 
gave  him  the  doctorate  of  laws,  which  it  also  gave  to  several 
other  American  bishops,  among  them  Mcllvaine,  Kemper, 
Lee  and  Talbot. 

Bishop  Kemper  did  not  attend  the  conference.  His  ex- 
penses thither  and  back  were  offered  him,  but  he  did  not 
take  advantage  of  the  offer  ;  had  it  been  a  council  of  the 
church,  he  said,  he  would  have  gone.  So  it  turned  out  that 
his  long  life  was  spent  entirely  in  his  native  land. 

As  after  the  subsidence  of  a  long  and  violent  storm  the 
ocean  is  deeply  agitated,  and  a  heavy  ground-swell  will 
wash  the  beaches  and  dash  upon  the  rocky  coast  for  days, 
so,  long  after  the  civil  war,  society  was  stirred  to  its  founda- 
tions and  borne  away  from  its  former  moorings, — but  the 
old  bishop  was  oblivious  of  these  changes.  It  had  been  like 
the  extraction  of  a  tooth  to  him  to  make  any  public  refer- 
ence to  the  contest,  and  he  ignored  its  cessation  :  no  expres- 
sion of  gratitude  for  the  return  of  peace  is  to  be  found  in  his 
convention  address  of  1865.  In  the  autumn  of  the  year  he 
journeyed  to  Philadelphia,  for  the  purpose  detailed  in  the 
following  letter  to  Dr.  Johnson,  putting  by  an  invitation  to 
visit  New  York  : 

"  Dearest  Rosey  : 

"  Your  affectionate  and  very  gratifying  letter  was  duly  received, 
and  did  circumstances  permit  I  would  certainly  accept  the  kind  invi- 
tation it  contained.  I  came  on  to  General  Convention  contrary  to 
the  wishes  of  my  children,   and  devoted  myself  to  the  business  of  the 


214         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

House  of  Bishops  and  the  Board  of  Missions.  I  have  been  punctual 
in  my  attendance  (just  following  the  example  and  principles  of  Bishop 
White),  and  I  must  say,  if  others  had  done  the  same,  we  could  now 
adjourn ;  but  with  the  exception  of  a  few  of  us,  members  come  in  when 
they  please,  go  away  when  they  please  or  absent  themselves  when 
they  please  :  and  then  when  present  are  talking  with  their  neighbors, 
writing  letters,  or  making  long  speeches.  My  patience  and  my 
strength  are  exhausted,  and  I  am  convinced  it  is  my  duty  to  hasten 
home  as  speedily  and  directly  as  possible." 

The  absorbing  interest  of  the  year  1866  in  the  diocese  of 
Wisconsin  was  the  election  of  an  assistant  to  its  aged  bishop. 
DeKoven  was  nominated,  and  he  nominated  Wilham  Cros- 
well  Doane;  Bishop  Clarkson's  name  was  also  proposed, 
and  secured  three  votes,  to  DeKoven's  five.  Opposition  to 
the  latter  was  strong  by  reason  of  his  practices  of  eucharistic 
adoration  and  auricular  confession.  These  were  the  points 
of  difference  between  him  and  Dr,  William  Adams,  who 
was  personally  offended  by  DeKoven's  visits  to  Nashotah, 
to  hear  the  confessions  of  students  there.  The  name  of 
William  Edmond  Armitage,  rector  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Detroit,  having  been  proposed  to  the  convention,  was  favor- 
ably received,  and  soon  secured  the  requisite  number  of 
suffrages.  Columbia  College,  his  alma  mater,  conferred  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  sacred  theology  upon  the  bishop  elect, 
and  on  the  6th  of  December  he  was  consecrated  in  his  par- 
ish church  at  Detroit  by  Bishops  Kemper,  McCoskry,  Lee, 
Whipple,  Talbot  and  Clarkson.  It  was  the  eleventh  con- 
secration and  the  last  in  which  the  venerable  Kemper  took 
part.  On  his  way  he  revisited  Indianapolis,  and  was  deejtly 
touched  and  pleased  by  the  cordial,  filial  welcome  he  re- 
ceived. Often,  indeed,  his  declining  years  were  brightened 
by  meetings  with  sons  and  daughters  of  the  church  whom  as 
a  missionary  bishop  he   had  baptized  or  confirmed.     He 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     215 

now  desired  all  missions  and  schools  in  the  diocese  to  look 
for  support  to  Bishop  Armitage,  who  immediately  made  a 
thorough  visitation,  to  acquaint  himself  with  his  new  field, 
and  especially  assigned  him  the  organization  of  church  work 
in  the  city  of  Milwaukee,  whose  geographical  divisions, 
large  foreign  population,  subordination  to  the  influence  of 
Chicago,  and  lack  of  church  edifices  "fit  to  stand  among 
its  private  residences,"  were  great  hindrances  to  the  growth 
of  the  church.  The  new  bishop  immediately  set  about  to 
procure  himself  a  cathedral ;  started  a  new  periodical,  ' '  The 
Church  Register  "  ;  and  procured  funds  for  a  new  building 
at  Nashotah, — Shelton  Hall,  in  which  he  reserved  and  fur- 
nished a  room  for  himself. 

In  1868,  a  movement  to  divide  the  diocese  gathered 
strength.  Two  years  before,  the  convention  pronounced  it- 
self in  favor  of  a  division,  which  met  Kemper's  approval ; 
and  now  he  greeted,  as  "a  true  return  to  primitive  times," 
some  signs  of  a  diocesan  organization  at  Fond  du  Lac. 
Bishop  Armitage  had  the  "see-principle"  much  at  heart ; 
and  under  these  auspices  a  document  was  prepared,  to  be 
submitted  to  the  coming  general  convention,  recommending 
a  return  to  the  old  idea  of  the  episcopate  as  the  apostolate, 
or  missionary  order ;  its  seat  to  be  the  city,  as  the  centre  of 
civilization,  in  contrast  to  the  restrictive,  territorial  concep- 
tion still  prevailing ;  the  multiplication  of  bishops  to  go  on 
until  there  should  be  one  in  every  city  of  the  land,  each 
with  his  cathedral  church  as  the  focus  of  the  spiritual  and 
educational  life  of  the  diocese.  Four  such  sees,  it  was  con- 
cluded, were  needed  immediately  in  Wisconsin.  This  was 
the  famous  "  Wisconsin  Memorial  "  ;  it  brought  out  plainly 
the  paramount  interest  of  the  western  church  in  matters  of 
ecclesiastical  polity. 

In  1868,  too,  DeKoven  matured  an  ambitious  design  rel- 


216         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

ative  to  Racine  College.  He  had  taken  charge  of  it  as  a 
diocesan  school,  a  feeder  to  Nashotah  seminary  ;  but  now, 
under  the  influence,  without  doubt,  of  the  ideal  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  South,  which  was  just  being  revived,  he  aspired 
to  make  of  it  the  "Church  University  of  the  West."  It 
was  exempted,  accordingly,  from  local,  diocesan  control, 
and  became  a  general  institution  under  the  charge  of  bishops 
and  other  trustees  in  several  dioceses. 

Kemper  had  thought  that  the  general  convention  of  1865 
would  be  the  last  that  he  would  attend,  but  three  years  later 
his  health  continued  so  firm  that  he  was  able  to  attend  that 
of  1868  also,  and  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to 
see  his  old  friends  in  New  York  and  to  revisit  the  scenes  of 
his  boyhood, — how  changed  to  the  outward  eye  by  the  prog- 
ress of  two  generations  !  Aware  that  it  was  the  last  time,  he 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  Norwalk,  and  stood  by  the  grave  of 
the  wife  whom  he  had  laid  to  rest  there  thirty-six  years  be- 
fore. He  was  spared  to  behold  the  fruit  of  his  thirty  years' 
labor  in  Wisconsin,  presiding  over  his  diocesan  convention 
in  1869,  his  assistant  bishop  by  his  side,  and  surrounded  by 
the  remarkable  number  of  sixty-eight  clergy.  After  this, 
the  last  assembly  of  the  kind  at  which  his  venerable  figure 
and  benignant  countenance,  with  its  crown  of  snowy  hair, 
were  seen,  he  journeyed  to  Minnesota,  at  its  bishop's  re- 
quest, to  consecrate  the  cathedral  church  of  Our  Merciful 
Saviour  at  Faribault,  on  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
and  to  preach  an  ordination  sermon  from  its  pulpit. 

This  was  the  second  cathedral  in  the  American  church, 
and  the  first  to  be  built  for  the  purpose. 

In  the  gathering  of  clergy  on  that  occasion,  the  bishop 
missed  his  old-time  protege,  James  Lloyd  Breck,  who, 
nearly  two  years  before,  had  left  Minnesota  for  the  far 
West.     After  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Dr.  Breck  had  mar- 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     217 

ried  again, — he,  who  once  regarded  second  marriages  as 
next  to  adultery  !  No  doubt  he  was  actuated  by  the  homely 
sentiment  that  one  might  as  well  be  killed  for  a  sheep  as  for 
a  lamb.  And  now  the  old  pioneer  fever  flashed  up  again  in 
his  veins,  and,  feeling  impeded  by  the  thickening  mesh  of 
civilization  in  Minnesota,  he  turned  his  visage  to  the  land 
of  gold,  and  vanishes  from  our  view  in  the  golden  lightning 
of  the  setting  sun. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  to-day  the  veneration  felt 
toward  Bishop  Kemper  by  the  whole  church  in  those  closing 
years  of  his  earthly  course.  Nothing  like  it  has  been  seen 
since,  and  to  find  a  parallel  in  the  more  distant  past  one 
would  have  to  go  back  to  the  days  of  his  ideal,  Bishop 
White.  In  his  letter  just  quoted,  he  made  a  filial  reference 
to  his  old  leader ;  and  in  sooth  his  position  in  the  early 
history  of  the  western  church  is  of  the  same  unique,  never- 
to-be-repeated  character  as  that  of  White  in  the  eastern  in 
the  first  half-century  of  the  republic.  It  is  true  that  he 
never  presided  over  a  general  convention,  but  after  the  death 
of  Brownell  in  January,  1865,  he  was  the  senior  in  age  of  all 
the  American  bishops.  He  was  over  two  years  older  than 
the  next  presiding  bishop,  Hopkins,  who  died  in  January, 
1868,  and  nearly  five  years  older  than  his  successor.  Smith 
of  Kentucky.  The  reverence  felt  for  him  throughout  the 
whole  commonwealth  of  Wisconsin,  by  men  of  every  class, 
was  beautiful  and  affecting ;  he  could  travel  about  the  state 
for  weeks  without  its  costing  him  a  cent,  for  people  would 
not  take  payment  from  him  for  conveyance  and  entertain- 
ment. The  rough  lumbermen  of  the  backwoods  would 
stand,  with  uncovered  heads,  waiting  for  him  to  say  grace 
before  they  would  sit  down  to  eat.  And  this  sentiment  was 
deepened  by  proximity ;  those  who  knew  him  best  revered 
him  most.     The  community  at  Nashotah  and  every  one  in 


218         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

the  neighborhood,  down  to  domestics  and  laborers  in  the 
fields,  felt  for  him  affection  mingled  with  awe ;  and  Renan 
has  well  said  that  the  judgment  of  one's  humblest  friends, 
in  respect  to  character,  is  almost  always  that  of  God.  It  is 
■  a  pleasure  to  dwell  upon  the  Indian  summer  of  that  holy 
life ;  the  whole  career  is  as  beautiful,  as  finished,  and  as  per- 
fect in  its  close  as  a  work  of  art.  In  those  halcyon  years, 
that  serene  old  age  after  the  labors  of  life's  day,  Jackson 
Kemper  verified  the  exquisite  sayings  of  Joubert,  that  the 
winter  of  the  body  is  the  autumn  of  the  soul,  that  life's 
evening  brings  with  it  its  lamp,  and  that  no  one  is  truly 
happy  in  old  age  except  the  priest.  His  children  were 
about  him,  and  his  sisters,  though  growing  very  feeble, 
were  with  him  to  the  end.  The  board  of  missions  pensioned 
him  to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  dollars  a  year,  and  his 
diocesan  salary  was  better  paid,  so  that  he  was  in  easy 
circumstances,  financially,  and  free  of  every  worldly  thought 
and  business  care.  He  continued  to  take  pious  care  of  his 
health,  walking  to  and  from  Nashotah  as  long  as  his  strength 
permitted,  and  driving  regularly  with  his  daughter.  So  he 
enjoyed  immunity  from  rheumatism  and  dyspepsia.  He 
read  and  wrote  until  the  last,  keeping  up  his  interest  in  the 
daily  news,  enjoying  books  of  wholesome  fun  like  the 
"Innocents  Abroad,"  and  deriving  the  greatest  pleasure 
from  articles  in  Littell's  Living  Age.  He  was  especially 
interested,  during  those  latter  years,  in  books  about  Pales- 
tine, such  as  Robinson's  "Physical  Geography  of  the  Holy 
Land,"  and  in  Rawlinson's  "  Ancient  Monarchies  of  the 
East."  He  read  the  latest  theological  works  until  within  a 
couple  of  years  of  his  death,  never  went  on  a  visitation  with- 
out carrying  some  with  him,  which  he  would  give  or  send 
to  his  isolated  missionaries.  Some  time  in  1868,  happening 
to  put  his  hand  over  one  eye,  he  discovered,  with  a  shock 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     219 

of  surprise,  that  the  sight  of  the  other  was  gone.  From  that 
time  he  gave  up  trying  to  make  out  manuscript  and  fine 
print,  and  was  read  to  more  and  more.  His  memory  of  the 
middle  part  of  his  life  began  to  be  obscured,  the  early  years 
of  his  episcopate  and  especially  his  southern  tour  being 
seemingly  blotted  from  his  mind  ;  while  he  remembered  his 
boyhood  in  New  York  and  early  ministry  in  Philadelphia  with 
luminous  clearness,  and  never  forgot  passing  engagements. 
One  little  infirmity  of  temper  betrayed  his  declining  age : 
the  perfection  of  courtesy  himself,  he  was  impatient  with  bad 
manners,  and  would  sometimes  rebuke  them  sharply;  but 
afterward  was  always  sorry  for  his  irritability. 

The  last  year  of  his  life,  the  portrait  that  is  most  familiar 
through  reproductions  was  painted,  for  the  state  historical 
society  at  Madison.  It  presents  his  strong  profile,  softened 
by  the  pathos  of  age, — the  mass  of  white  and  wavy  hair  that 
was  such  a  decided  beauty  to  the  very  last,  the  prominent 
brows,  the  almost  Roman  nose,  firm  lips  and  chin. 

The  year  1869  saw  the  beginning  of  the  most  serious 
internal  dissensions  that  ever  vexed  the  church  in  America, 
— a  veritable  ecclesiastical  civil  war,  a  reflection  of  the  war 
of  secession.  The  Reverend  Phillips  Brooks  left  Philadelphia 
that  year,  after  a  ten  years'  service,  to  become  rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  Boston ;  and  the  outlines  of  the  broad 
church  movement  in  this  country  began  to  be  more  clearly 
defined.  It  originated  as  a  philosophic,  irenical  school,  a 
peace  party,  whose  primary  thesis  was  that  there  was  room 
for  both  the  warring  sections,  high  and  low,  within  the 
comprehensive  church ;  and  it  had  accordingly  to  undergo 
the  common  fate  of  reconcilers,  to  be  suspected  and  abused 
on  both  sides,  and  to  arouse  peculiar  animosity  in  the 
stronger  party.  It  was  characterized  by  deep,  sincere, 
single-hearted,  and  pervasive,  albeit  undogmatic,  devotion 


220         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

to  the  person  of  Christ,  and  charity  toward  all  who  were 
called  by  his  name ;  and  to  plain  people  this  seemed  more 
like  true  Christianity  than  the  most  thorough,  intimate,  and 
minute,  inspired  and  infallible  understanding  of  the  hypostatic 
union,  lacking  that  grace.  Preaching  was  its  strength,  and 
its  universal  theme,  the  upbuilding  of  Christian  character. 
It  brought  forward  the  old  evangelical  estimate  of  the  infinite 
value  of  the  individual  soul,  while  envisaging  the  individual 
in  his  social  relations  as  the  evangelicals  had  never  done. 
In  the  breadth  of  its  sympathies  and  conciliatory  strivings 
it  tended  to  obliterate  distinctions :  it  was  indifferent  to 
points  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  forms  of  government,  usages 
in  worship ;  in  its  genial  optimism  it  overlooked  the  dark 
side  of  human  life,  and  questioned  the  justice  of  eternal 
punishment.  Its  indefiniteness  in  matters  where  clearness 
and  consistency  are  greatly  to  be  desired,  accounted  for  and 
partly  justified  the  opposition  of  the  high  church  party. 

The  catholic  movement  was  passing  into  a  new  phase, — 
induced,  no  doubt,  by  the  rise  of  the  little  horn  of  broad 
churchmanship.  The  less  the  latter  made  of  forms,  the 
more  did  its  adversary  cultivate  them,  making  dogmas  of 
apostolical  succession  and  the  real  presence,  and  enveloping 
the  latter  in  a  cloud  of  symbolic  ritual.  It  also  rejected 
philosophy.  "  Advanced  "  churchmen  were  more  interested 
in  intensive  than  extensive  spiritual  culture ;  in  the  multipli- 
cation of  eucharists  and  other  services,  in  early  celebrations, 
in  the  ornaments  of  the  altar,  church  music,  and  all  forms 
of  ecclesiastical  art  and  organization,  and  in  the  practice, 
both  exterior  and  interior,  of  personal  piety,  by  means  of 
the  confessional,  books  of  devotion,  and  the  like.  It  was  a 
pity  that  these  developments  were  accompanied  by  a  notice- 
able decline  of  pristine  missionary  zeal,  any  subsidence  of 
which  is  such  a  suspicious  symptom,  and  that  they  seemed 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     221 

to  be  associated  with  a  docetic,  Apollinarian,  or  mono- 
physitic  Christology,  an  unerring  sign  of  a  Sabellianizing 
theology.  The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  new  party, 
to  enlarge  a  little,  was  its  exaltation  of  the  eucharist  with 
insistence  upon  fasting  reception,  to  an  apparent  depreciation 
of  other  worship  and  justification  of  the  charge  of  its  low 
church  opponents  that  it  was  propagating  a  superstitious 
notion  of  the  effect  of  the  sacraments,  which  they  stigmatized 
as  "sacramental  justification," — the  idea  that  the  mere 
physical  reception  of  the  consecrated  wafer  justified  the  soul 
in  the  sight  of  God.  Very  offensive  to  a  vast  majority  was 
the  corresponding  tendency  to  assimilate  the  worship  of  the 
church  to  that  of  Rome ;  to  adopt  her  gorgeous  vestments,  to 
set  the  altar  ablaze  with  eucharistic  lights,  to  elevate  the  con- 
secrated species  in  token  of  the  completion  of  the  sacrificial 
offering  for  the  quick  and  the  dead,  to  practice  her  bowings, 
genuflections,  prostrations,  and  burning  of  incense,  all  in 
recognition  of  the  present  God. 

These  innovations  excited  apprehension  and  a  reactionary 
sentiment  akin  to  indignation  among  conservative  bishops 
of  the  catholic  school,  such  as  our  hero  and  Bishop  Whit- 
tingham.  The  sacrifice  of  the  cross  is  not  repeated,  said 
Kemper,  but  commemorated  in  the  eucharist ;  and  he  ad- 
jured his  diocese  to  adhere  to  the  ritual  of  the  fathers  of  the 
American  church.  White,  Seabury,  Hobart,  Ravenscroft, 
Brownell,  and  Otey,  not  to  depart  from  what  delighted 
them,  not  to  add  to,  alter,  or  omit  any  of  the  prescribed 
order  of  worship.  Usages  in  the  church  of  England,  he 
continued,  are  without  authority  for  us ;  and  again  he  ex- 
claimed. Avoid  ritual  novelties.  Armitage  echoed  these 
sentiments,  with  certain  qualifications :  lawlessness  is  worse 
than  ritualism,  said  he,  and  we  cannot  expect  to  have  ritual 
petrifaction.     Bishop  Whipple  handled  the  subject  in  the 


222         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

broadest,  most  statesmanlike  way,  in  addressing  his  conven- 
tion :  "  Every  school  of  religious  thought  and  feeling  has  its 
own  peculiar  mission.  The  Church  needs  it,  the  world 
needs  it,  and  it  can  do  a  work  which  no  others  will  do.  It 
is  the  misfortune  of  human  nature  to  elevate  its  own  private 
opinions  into  matters  of  faith,  and  to  claim  from  all  others 
subjection  to  its  rules  of  action.  .  .  .  There  must  be 
within  the  Church  all  the  liberty  necessary  for  Christian 
work.  We  must  permit  men,  so  far  as  is  consistent  with 
the  preservation  of  the  faith  and  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
liberty  of  opinion  and  action."  Whitehouse's  sentiments  at 
this  period  show  how  far  he  had  traveled  since  his  evangel- 
ical days  at  Rochester :  great  difference  of  ritual  practice, 
he  said,  is  a  result  of  catholic  liberty;  and  while  "  exagger- 
ated attention  to  the  minutiae  of  dress  and  ceremonial  must 
be  painful  to  a  serious  mind,  this  deep  movement  aims  at 
the  expression  of  the  highest  truths,  the  retrieval  of  unheeded 
privilege,  the  quickening  of  sacramental  life ;  "  it  restores 
what  the  church  has  had  in  abeyance,  and  deepens  the  spell 
of  religion  ;  so  "I  dare  not  esteem  it  lightly  nor  crudely 
condemn  it."  It  is  destined  to  enter  permanently  into  our 
church  life.  When  he  discovered,  however,  that  the  con- 
sensus of  episcopal  opinion  was  against  all  innovations  in 
public  worship,  he  questioned  his  convention  as  follows : 
"Suppose,  in  the  face  of  this  [prohibition],  that  the  minis- 
ter burns  candles  at  the  Holy  Communion,  or  waves  the 
censer,  or  bends  the  knee  before  the  consecrated  elements, 
or  elevates  the  paten  for  adoration,  or  mutilates  the  bap- 
tismal service,  or  holds  the  prescribed  services  of  the  Lit- 
urgy subject  to  his  own  taste  and  self-will, — what  is  the 
Bishop  to  do,  .  .  .  and  what  is  tlie  minister  to  do  ? 
Obey,  or  invoke  public  sympathy  against  the  tyranny  of  his 
Bishop?     And   what    are    the    laity  to  do?     Respect   the 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     223 

Church's  discipHne,  or  rail,  and  lay  her  honor  in  the 
dust  ?  ' '  But  Upfold  was  very  bold  ;  several  years  before 
this  crisis  he  had  put  himself  on  record,  warning  his  clergy 
against  "certain  novel  usages"  that  were  spreading,  and 
causing  misapprehension,  prejudice,  and  reproach.  Among 
them  was  nocturnal  celebration  of  the  communion  on  Holy 
Thursday,  "  in  defiance  of  church  authority.  Bad  example 
is  contagious,  and  so  this  will  not  be  tolerated  in  my  juris- 
diction. I  regret  to  say  .  .  .  that  decoration  of  the 
Communion  Table  or  altar,  chancel,  font,  and  pulpit  with 
flowers  on  Easter  Sunday,  as  an  assumed  symbol  of  the 
glorious  event  we  commemorate,  has  been  introduced,  with- 
out the  sanction  of  this  Church  ;  purely  an  exercise  of  private 
judgment,  dictated  by  an  exuberant  imaginativeness,  and  to 
my  mind,  a  very  questionable  taste,  .  .  . — the  practice 
of  Romanists,  and  those  who  have  eagerly  looked  Rome- 
ward,  many  of  whom  have  ultimately  gone  over,  body  and 
soul,  to  that  corrupt  communion.  Can  fading  flowers  be  an 
emblem  of  that  which  fadeth  not  away?  Who  thinks  the 
more  of  the  Resurrection  for  such  an  exhibition  ?  It  will 
not  be  allowed  in  this  diocese, — I  will  not  visit  or  officiate  in 
any  parish,  administer  confirmation,  etc.,  on  Easter  Sunday 
or  other  occasion,  where  this  floral  display  is  attempted." 

Doubtless  the  good  bishop's  acerbity  is  to  be  accounted 
for  by  a  twinge  of  gout. 

Lee  feared  that  ritualism  would  do  our  church  "  incal- 
culable injury,"  inculcating  false  eucharistic  doctrine, — that 
of  a  carnal  presence  ;  and  Clarkson  fervently  echoed  an  ap- 
peal to  "  stress  the  time-honored  term,  Protestant,  because 
apostates  revile  it  and  discard  the  Reformation,  whence 
come  our  liberties."  And  another  bishop,  in  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  centrifugal  motion,  flew  off"  at  a  tangent  and 
formed  a  new  asteroid  in  the  ecclesiastical  firmament. 


224         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

Dr.  George  David  Cummins,  of  Trinity  Church,  Chicago, 
had  been  elected  assistant  bishop  of  Kentucky,  and  was 
consecrated  in  Christ  Church,  Louisville,  on  the  15th  of 
November,  1866,  by  Bishops  Hopkins,  Smith,  Lee,  Talbot, 
Quintard,  and  Clarkson.  At  that  date  he  still  believed  that 
he  could  work,  untrammeled,  with  men  of  different  views, 
in  the  same  church ;  and  it  is  certainly  not  without  interest 
to  behold  in  his  changing  sentiments,  as  in  a  glass,  the  evo- 
lution of  schism, — as  rapid,  in  this  case,  as  the  growth  of  its 
ritualistic  counterpart.  Bishop  Cummins  was  possessed  by 
a  dread  and  abhorrence  of  ritualism,  and  its  portentous  ad- 
vance unsettled  him  in  his  catholic  position  of  unity  in  es- 
sentials, liberty  in  non-essentials,  and  charity  in  all  things, 
for  he  was  persuaded  that  its  essence  was  spiritual  evil. 
For  a  time  he  believed  in  fighting  error  in  the  church  within 
her  pale,  and,  declining  an  overture  of  separation,  he  strug- 
gled for  five  years  to  put  down  ritualism  in  Kentucky,  but 
without  avail;  and  becoming  disenchanted,  discouraged 
over  the  condition  of  the  church  in  general,  and  convinced 
that  ritual  error  could  not  be  eradicated  from  her,  he  con- 
cluded that  there  was  nothing  for  him  but  to  part  company 
with  her.  He  was  on  his  way  to  this  conclusion  when  a 
collision  with  the  redoubtable  bishop  of  Illinois  precipitated 
its  formation.  In  the  summer  of  1869,  communications 
passed  between  the  two  relative  to  an  invitation  Cummins 
had  received  to  attend  a  meeting  of  an  evangelical  mission- 
ary society  in  Chicago.  Whitehouse  waved  him  away  from 
his  diocese,  warned  him  not  to  trespass  on  the  premises. 
Cummins  returned  a  notice  of  his  intention  to  preach  in  that 
city  on  a  specified  date,  in  behalf  of  missions.  Thereupon 
Whitehouse  inhibited  him  from  officiating  in  Chicago.  This 
action  excited  intense  feeling  among  all  who  were  concerned, 
and  some  who  were  not ;  Bishop  Clarkson  thought  that  his 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     225 

old  bishop  ought  to  be  brought  to  trial  for  such  uncanonical 
breach  of  ecclesiastical  comity.  Cummins  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  inhibition,  and  preached  in  Trinity,  his  former 
parish  church. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  it  was  in  the  effervescent  West,  so 
full  of  unrestrained  youthful  energy,  and  given  to  extremes, 
that  these  religious  movements  revealed  their  inner  nature, 
— that  their  implicit  logic  became  explicit.  And  the  push- 
ing, young  metropolis  of  the  West  was  their  storm  centre. 
Around  the  figure  of  the  inflexible,  Hildebrandine  White- 
house  the  tempest  raged,  and  he  was  in  his  element,  as  he 
always  was  in  a  scrimmage.  Diverse  opinions  have  been 
entertained  of  his  attitude  during  that  crisis,  some  holding 
that  if  he  had  been  of  conciliatory  temperament  the  storm 
would  never  have  arisen,  while  others  maintained  that  his 
prophetic  soul  divined  the  coming  schism,  and  that  his 
prompt  action  discomfited  the  conspirators  and  prevented 
the  disruption  from  assuming  the  proportions  it  otherwise 
would  have  done.  For  now  Mr.  Cheney  of  Christ  Church, 
Chicago,  assumed  what  the  French  call  an  intransigent  at- 
titude, omitting  the  word  < '  regenerate  ' '  in  his  administra- 
tion of  baptism,  manifesting  an  intention  of  forcing  an  issue. 
This  is  the  significance  of  Bishop  Whitehouse's  reference  to 
mutilation  of  the  baptismal  service,  in  his  passage  above 
quoted.  Mr.  Cheney  certainly  gave  greater  depth  and  dig- 
nity to  the  dissenting  movement  by  adding  to  Cummins'  re- 
pugnance to  ritual  a  doctrinal  ground  of  difference.  These 
leaders  and  their  followers  disliked  the  terms  "  priest," 
"  absolution,"  "regeneration  by  baptism,"  "  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,"  and  absolutely  repudiated  the  sense  that 
their  opponents  put  upon  them.  Their  weakness  lay  in  the 
admission,  by  secession,  that  that  sense  was  the  only  one 
that  the  terms  would  bear ;  by  their  act,  they  abandoned  the 


226         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

point  in  dispute,  and  surrendered  the  church,  so  far  as  in 
them  lay,  to  their  sacerdotal  and  ritualistic  enemy.  Mr. 
Cheney  practically  insisted  that  the  term  "regenerate" 
could  only  be  taken  in  the  sense  he  repudiated,  and  so 
omitted  it  from  the  office.  The  morality  of  such  omission 
needs  no  comment,  in  the  case  of  one  who  had  upon  his 
soul  the  vow  of  the  priesthood,  faithfully  to  minister  the 
sacraments  as  the  church  had  received  them.  Nothing  had 
been  added  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  since  he  took  that 
vow,  ten  years  before.  He  was  under  no  necessity  what- 
ever to  adopt  a  new  meaning,  or  any  of  the  ritual  he  dis- 
liked. His  action  therefore  must  always  seem  to  have  been 
inspired  by  the  true  schismatic  spirit  of  separation  for  opin- 
ion's sake,  whose  motto  is.  No  fellowship  with  those  who 
differ  about  definitions.  Never  was  the  broad  church  the- 
sis more  needed  and  less  heeded.  He  left  a  canonist  and 
ecclesiastical  lawyer  like  his  bishop  no  option,  and  in  1869 
Whitehouse  began  to  proceed  against  him,  but  was  stayed 
by  a  writ  of  injunction.     It  was  Greek  meeting  Greek. 

Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 
Like  a  phantasma,  or  a  hideous  dream  ; 
The  genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council ;  and  the  state  of  man, 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom,  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection. 

When  in  that  interim  of  suspense  the  bishop  gave  and 
acted  upon  a  notice  of  a  canonical  visitation  of  Christ 
Church,  it  must  have  been  a  thrilling,  not  to  say  blood- 
crisping  scene,  to  see  him  enter  the  church  and  the  rector 
and  congregation  rise  in  stern  silence  to  receive  him.  Not 
a  candidate  was  presented  for  confirmation,  and  the  atmos- 
phere was  charged  with  emotional  electricity. 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    227 

An  unforeseen  result  of  the  trial  was  to  crystallize  all  his 
other  clergy  in  support  of  their  bishop,  so  that  at  the  close 
of  his  career  Whitehouse  had  a  united  diocese  at  his  back. 
And  the  inexorable  prelate,  as  his  enemies  regarded  him, 
'*  as  cold  as  ice  and  as  polished  as  marble,"  has  been  seen 
to  sit  upon  the  floor  and  fondle  and  play  with  the  little  chil- 
dren of  one  of  his  laymen. 

Another  providential  use  of  all  the  divisions  sketched 
above  was  that  they  took  the  minds  of  churchmen  off  of 
lines  of  political  and  sectional  divergence,  and  turned  them 
again  to  matters  of  ecclesiastical  interest.  And  as  the  civil 
war  in  the  case  of  the  nation,  so  did  these  troubles  make 
manifest  the  inherent  strength  of  the  church. 

Bishop  Kemper  was  taken  from  the  evil  to  come;  for 
certainly  the  five  years  after  his  death  were  the  most  trou- 
bled period  in  the  history  of  the  church  in  America.  It 
almost  seemed  as  though  his  departure  removed  a  re- 
straint upon  party  passion.  But  if  on  the  one  hand  he  was 
spared  much  that  would  sorely  have  afflicted  his  spirit,  he 
was  not  permitted  to  see  the  wonderful  growth  of  the  West 
on  the  other.  He  had  labored,  and  others  were  to  enter 
into  the  fruits  of  his  labor.  At  the  very  time  of  his  depar- 
ture, the  frontier  of  culture  was  stealing  over  the  West. 
Villages  that  he  had  known  were  becoming  towns,  and  towns 
great  cities  ;  until  shortly,  throughout  his  old  jurisdiction, 
Indianapolis,  Milwaukee,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  St.  Louis, 
Kansas  City,  and  Omaha  were  to  cluster  around  the  mighty 
Chicago,  all  boasting  their  splendid  avenues,  parks,  public 
buildings  and  monuments,  churches,  colleges,  libraries,  art 
galleries  and  exhibitions,  music  halls,  theatres,  opera- 
houses,  and  all  the  insignia  of  a  high  civilization,  most  con- 
genial to  the  catholic  church.  He  had  organized  six  dio- 
ceses,   consecrated   nearly   a   hundred   churches,   ordained 


228         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

over  two  hundred  priests  and  deacons,  and  confirmed  nearly 
ten  thousand  souls.  At  the  end  of  another  generation  and 
of  the  century,  the  number  of  dioceses  was  doubled  in  the 
fields  where  he  had  labored,  and  in  the  twelve  were 
over  seven  hundred  churches,  nearly  six  hundred  clergy, 
sixty-five  thousand  communicants,  and  every  two  years 
more  persons  were  confirmed  than  he  had  confirmed  in  the 
whole  of  his  long  episcopate. 

The  trip  to  Faribault  proved  to  be  the  last  journey  of  any 
length  that  Kemper  took, — the  last  time  that  he  was  out  of 
his  own  diocese.  The  following  August,  he  had  a  seizure 
of  some  sort  in  the  train,  while  on  his  way  to  Milwaukee, 
and  after  that  failed  gradually  and  perceptibly,  and  resigned 
to  Armitage  the  visitation  of  all  points  at  any  distance  from 
Nashotah.  Still,  for  several  months  more,  his  health  was 
relatively  fair,  and  he  was  able  to  comply  Avith  requests  for 
visitations,  at  which,  it  was  observed,  he  spoke  with  a  pecul- 
iar earnestness,  and  his  accents  seemed  to  come  from  beyond 
the  grave.  He  was  spared  to  see  his  eightieth  birthday,  the 
Christmas  Eve  of  1869,  and  the  sun  of  the  new  year  of 
1870,  the  last  he  was  to  behold  in  this  life.  In  the  winter 
and  spring  of  that  year  his  appetite  failed,  and  he  began  to 
be  filled  with  a  nervous  restlessness,  the  result  of  weakness. 
His  last  public  official  act  was  a  confirmation,  near  his 
home,  on  the  third  of  April.  Still  for  several  weeks  he 
continued  to  discharge  all  the  official  duties  that  he  could 
by  means  of  a  pen,  which  he  finally  laid  aside  on  the  i8th 
of  that  month,  and  after  that  by  the  aid  of  an  amanuensis. 
His  mind  continued  clear  to  the  end,  books  and  letters  were 
read  to  him,  and  he  kept  up  his  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the 
diocese.  He  went  to  bed,  those  closing  weeks,  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  after  five  hours'  sleep  was  up 
and  about,  eager  to  have  some  on«  read  to  him.     The  need 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES    229 

of  repentance  was  much  on  his  mind  that  last  month,  and 
among  his  last  words  were  these  : 

"I  have  everything  to  be  thankful  for;  the  presence  of 
my  Saviour,  the  help  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  and  a  hope  full  of 
immortality." 

On  Wednesday,  the  i8th  of  May,  he  took  finally  to  his 
bed.  On  Friday  Dr.  DeKoven  came  from  Racine  to  see 
him  for  the  last  time ;  he  begged  him  for  his  blessing,  and 
the  bishop  rambled  off  into  the  ordination  service.  The 
day  after,  he  entered  the  realm  of  unconsciousness.  The 
last  three  days  were  passed  in  complete  coma,  induced  by 
excess  of  urea  in  the  blood,  and  he  breathed  his  last  early 
in  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday,  May  the  24th. 

Those  who  gazed  upon  his  features  after  death  said  that 
it  seemed  as  though  twenty  years  had  been  taken  from  his 
age. 

Six  bishops,  the  presiding  bishop.  Smith  of  Kentucky, 
Whitehouse  of  Illinois,  Lee  of  Iowa,  Vail  of  Kansas,  Clark- 
son  of  Nebraska,  and  Robertson,  the  new  bishop  of  Missouri, 
were  present  at  the  funeral,  the  following  Tuesday,  Avith 
more  than  seventy  clergymen  and  two  thousand  people. 
The  service  was  begun  in  Nashotah  Chapel,  various  parts  in 
it  being  assigned  to  the  different  bishops.  A  single  hymn 
was  sung, — Kemper's  favorite  "Rock  of  Ages," — and  it 
was  taken  up  by  the  throng  outside  the  chapel  with  thrilling 
effect.  Then  the  vast  procession  moved  to  the  cemetery,  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  away,  and  Bishop  Whitehouse  committed 
his  body  to  the  dust. 

At  a  memorial  service  held  at  the  meeting  of  the  diocesan 
convention  the  ensuing  June,  Dr.  Hugh  Miller  Thompson, 
professor  of  ecclesiastical  history  at  Nashotah,  was  appointed 
to  preach  a  sermon  from  which  we  are  fain  to  quote  the 
following  beautiful  passages : 


230         AN  APOSTLE  OF  THE  WESTERN  CHURCH 

"  There  are  deaths  that  come  upon  us  with  the  sense  of  a 
completed  harmony,  when  the  work  is  done,  when  the  story  is 
all  told,  when  the  long,  full  day's  travel  is  finished. 
They  are  deaths  to  thank  God  for — these  deaths  that  end  a 
long  and  fruitful  life  with  a  perfect  close.  They  come 
with  the  calmness  of  summer  sunsets  that  end  the  day,  with 
the  dreamy  regret  of  the  Indian  summer  that  ends  the  year. 
They  seem  to  belong  to  the  diviner  harmonies  of  the  other 
world,  to  be  visitations  of  God's  eternal  order  here  among 
the  uncertainties  and  confusions  of  time. 

"It  is  such  a  death  we  commemorate  here  in  this  memorial 
service,  and  I  believe  there  is  no  one  present  who  does  not 
thank  God  that  it  came  to  our  departed  father.  So  har- 
moniously his  beautiful  life  closed,  so  orderly  and  peacefully 
was  the  journey  traveled  and  ended,  so  calmly,  in  a  hale  old 
age,  with  threescore  years  of  faithful  service  behind  him, 
did  the  summons  come,  that  in  our  deep  and  sore  sense  of 
pain  and  loss  to  ourselves,  there  is  still  this  underlying  con- 
tent, because  the  death  was  beautiful  as  the  life  was,  be- 
cause the  one  fitted  the  other,  and  God  made  both  complete. 

"  For  nearly  sixty  years,  Bishop  Kemper  served  at  the 
altar.  For  nearly  thirty-five  of  those  sixty  years  he  was  a 
bishop.  His  active  life  covered  a  period  of  the  greatest 
changes  in  his  own  country  and  the  world,  his  whole  life 
nearly  the  entire  history  of  the  American  episcopate. 

"  Our  witness,  though  man's  witness  is  nothing  to  him  now, 
is  that  he  bore  himself  right  manfully,  loyally,  and  faith- 
fully, as  a  true  Bishop  and  ensample  for  the  flock,  and  that 
the  memory  of  his  faithful  life  is  a  precious  legacy  to  us  and 
to  our  children,  for  all  time  to  come." 

Talbot  told  the  people  of  Indiana  that  "no  bishop  in  the 
line  of  our  American  episcopate  has  succeeded  in  concen- 
trating upon  himself  more  entirely  than  he,  the  love  and 


BISHOP  KEMPER  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES     231 

veneration  of  the  Church."  And  Clarkson  said:  "He 
did  more  than  all  other  men  in  the  land  to  mould  the 
churchly  life  of  seven  great  dioceses.  .  .  .  O  that 
every  bishop  who  shall  minister  on  this  fair  domain  may 
inherit,  even  though  in  small  degree,  something  of  his 
fidelity,  his  single-mindedness,  and  his  self-consecration  !  " 
And  Vail  took  an  even  wider  view  :  "  His  life  furnishes  a 
most  important  link,  not  only  in  the  history  of  our  American 
church  but  in  the  history  of  the  Church  Catholic  of  this 
age,  as  it  develops  its  grand  missionary  work  for  the  benefit 
of  the  world." 

And  so  the  great  central  luminary,  having  thrown  off 
successive  rings  of  planetary  dioceses,  had  sunk  to  rest, 
without  a  cloud  to  dim  his  disk.  The  Christian  Odyssey 
of  the  great  West  was  over,  and  its  lakes  and  streams  and 
plains  knew  him  no  more.  The  Napoleon  of  a  spiritual 
empire  had  passed  away, — and  who  would  not  prefer  Kem- 
per's crown  to  Bonaparte's  ?  The  missionary  bishop  of  a 
jurisdiction  greater  than  any  since  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
— and  St.  Paul  himself  had  not  traveled  as  widely  and  as 
long,  for  Kemper  had  gone  three  hundred  thousand  miles 
upon  his  Master's  service, — was  gone  to  his  reward.  Well 
had  his  life  borne  out  the  meaning  of  his  name  :  "Kemper," 
"  A  Champion."  With  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  he 
could  say  : 

I  HAVE   FOUGHT    A   GOOD    FIGHT, 

I   HAVE   FINISHED    MY   COURSE, 

I   HAVE    KEPT   THE   FAITH. 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  CHURCH. 
Bishop  Cobbs  and  His  Contemporaries. 

Bv  THE  REV.  GREENOUGH  WHITE, 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the    University    of  the    South, 

Author  of  an  "  Outline  of  the  Philosophy  of  English  Literature" 

etc..  Editor  of  "  Matthew  Arnold  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Age." 

Pages   183,         .         .         $1.00. 

The  story  of  a  noble,  sweet,  and  spiritual  personality,  whom  it  is  a 
benediction  to  know.  The  first  Bishop  of  Alabama  is  duly  set  in  the 
group  of  famous  Episcopal  pioneers,  Otey,  Polk,  Elliott,  etc.,  of  the 
Southern  States ;  and  glimpses  of  the  religious,  literary,  and  social  en- 
vironment are  afforded,  in  order  to  mterpret  the  subject  to  readers  of  a 
later  generation.  It  is  both  a  sympathetic  biography  of  a  beautiful 
life,  and  a  chapter  of  American  Church  history.  The  following  quota- 
tions will  show  what  eminent  Churchmen  think  of  the  book. 

Rt.  Rev.  John  Williams,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. :  I  have  read  with  great 
pleasure  and  edification  the  Rev.  Greenough  White's  admirable  vol- 
ume. Any  one  who  was  privileged  to  know  Bishop  Cobbs  will  be 
thankful  for  so  excellent  a  statement  of  his  remarkable  and  attractive 
character.     I  trust  the  work  will  have  a  wide  circulation. 

Rt.  Rev.  H,  B,  Whipple,  D.D.,  LL.D.  :  I  have  seldom  read  a 
book  of  such  deep  interest,  and  none  which  gives  such  a  vivid  picture 
of  the  history  of  the  pioneer  Bishops  of  the  South.  It  is  helpful,  and 
makes  one  thank  God  for  the  good  examples  of  His  servants. 

Rt.  Rev.  C.  T.  Quintard,  D.D.,  LL.D.  :  Bishop  Cobbs  was  in- 
deed the  St.  John  of  the  Southern  Episcopate,  and  his  character  is 
drawn  to  the  life — the  life  of  an  Apostolic  Bishop  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church.  The  style  of  writing  is  most  attractive,  and  I  trust  the  book 
may  find  many  readers. 

Rt.  Rev.  W.  S.  Perry,  D.D.,  etc.,  Historiographer  of  the  Amer- 
ican Church  (in  '•  The  Iowa  Churchman  ") :  A  faithful  portraiture  of 
a  saint  of  God.  We  took  up  this  handsome  volume  purposing  but  a 
cursory  glance  at  its  contents  ;  but  so  interesting  was  the  matter,  so 
perfect  the  style,  so  fascinating  the  picturing  of  one  of  the  leaders  of 
God's  sacramental  host,  that  the  book  was  not  laid  down  till  the  last 
page  and  the  last  word  were  reached.     Professor  White  has  given  his 


readers  a  series  of  brilliant  chapters  of  American  Church  history,  as 
well  as  a  model  memoir  of  a  great-hearted  Bishop  of  the  Church  of 
God.  (/«  a  letter  dated  April  21,  1898,  Bishop  Perry  added) :  I  am 
more  and  more  delighted  with  the  volume. 

Rt.  Rev.  H.  Y.  Satterlee,  D.D.  :  A  valuable  contribution  to  a 
field  in  the  history  of  the  Church  too  little  known  or  studied.  Inter- 
esting as  a  record  of  an  interesting  period  in  our  national  life,  it  is 
doubly  interesting  as  a  personal  record  of  the  life  of  a  holy  man  in  a 
prominent  position  in  that  formative  time.  And  I  am  confident  that 
the  work  will  be  more  and  more  appreciated  as  time  goes  on,  and  the 
old  chapters  of  our  history  take  on  their  true  proportional  importance. 

Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  D.D.,  D.C.L.  :  I  read  the  book  with  deep  in- 
terest and  great  pleasure.  ...  It  has  peculiar  merits,  and  in  ad- 
dition to  presenting  a  lifelike  picture  of  the  subject  of  the  memoir,  it  is 
particularly  valuable  as  throwing  light  upon  the  history  of  the  Church 
in  the  South  during  a  very  trying  time. 

Rev.  W.  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  D.C.L. :  This  picture  of  the 
state  of  the  Church  in  the  South  just  before  the  Civil  War  is  most 
graphic ;  and  the  skill  shown  in  grouping  his  various  contemporaries 
around  the  central  hero  deserves  much  praise. 

Rev.  W.  P.  DuBose,  S.  T.  D.  :  Those  who  have  lived,  and 
whose  memory  goes  back  through  many  of  the  scenes  described,  will 
discover  very  few  inaccuracies  either  of  fact  or  feeling  in  this  book.  It 
is  written  with  as  much  sympathy  as  understanding,  and  its  greatest 
merit  is  its  exact  truth.  It  possesses  by  no  means  only  an  ecclesiastical 
or  religious  interest :  it  is  a  distinct  contribution  to  the  general  history 
as  well  of  the  section  of  which  it  treats. 

Rev.  H.  S.  Nash,  D.D.  (in  a  letter  to  the  author):  I  like  your 
book,  like  it  heartily.  You  have  brought  out  the  man  and  framed  him 
well.  I  trust  you  are  meaning  to  write  some  day  a  life  of  some  typical 
Western  Churchman  of  the  earlier  days. 

Rev.  W.  W.  Webb,  B.  D.  ;  A  very  vivid  and  most  instructive 
picture  of  Bishop  Cobbs  and  his  time.  The  book  seems  most  just  and 
fair  in  its  criticism  both  of  men  and  movements.  I  hope  that  we  may 
have  as  lifelike  and  true  a  picture  of  Bishop  Kemper  some  day. 

Rev.  Charles  Gore,  D.D.,  Canon  of  Westminster :  The  life  of 
Bishop  Cobbs  gave  me  an  interesting  insight  into  a  situation  about 
which  I  had  known  almost  nothing. 

JAMES  POTT  k  COMPANY,  285  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York. 


ROME,  CONSTANTINOPLE,  AND  THE  RISE 
OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY, 

A  Lecture  Delivered  by  the  Reverend 

GREENOUGH  WHITE, 

Before  the  Church  Club  of  New  York,  and  published  in  its  volume 
entitled  "  The  Rights  atid  Pretensions  of  the  Roman  See." 

The  lecture  opens  with  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  economic  and  poUtical,  moral  and  social, 
literary  and  aesthetic,  at  the  time  of  the  establishment  of 
Christianity,  and  passes  on  to  a  description  of  the  founding 
of  Constantinople,  the  character  of  its  church,  and  the  re- 
lations of  the  latter  to  the  sees  of  Rome  and  Alexandria. 
Glimpses  are  afforded  of  the  Arian,  Nestorian  and  Euty- 
chian  controversies,  and  of  great  personalities  such  as  Sts. 
Chrysostom  and  Augustine ;  and  the  latter's  influence  upon 
the  upbuilding  of  the  papal  supremacy  is  indicated.  The 
causes  of  the  rise  of  the  ascetic  ideal  and  dogmatic  celibacy 
are  elucidated.  Finally,  the  character  and  policy  of  Inno- 
cent I.  and  Leo  the  Great  are  outlined,  and  the  claim  made 
for  the  latter  to  be  considered  the  first  of  the  popes  is  dis- 
cussed. The  lecture  concludes  with  an  account  of  the  bar- 
barian invasions,  the  Monophysite  reaction,  and  the  breach 
of  communion  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  in 
A.  D.  484. 

E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNG  &  CO.,  Cooper  Union,  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York. 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF 
THE  AGE, 

Papers  of  the  English  Club  of  Sewanee, 

Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  and  Articles   upon  Clough's 

AND  Arnold's  Poetry,  by  its  President 

THE  REVEREND  GREENOUGH  WHITE, 

8°,        .         .        .        $1.26. 

Our  generation  has  been  one  of  portentous  changes,  and  this  volume 
is  an  earnest  effort,  the  first  of  its  kind,  to  apprehend  the  nature  and 
significance  of  these  changes.  Another  aim  of  the  book  is  to  afi'ord 
material  for  comparison  with  the  unpublished  work  of  other  literary 
clubs,  and  to  point  out  to  them  the  utility,  for  their  purpose,  of  a  study 
of  the  greatest  of  English  literary  critics.  It  is  gratifying  to  note  that 
these  aims  are  already  in  process  of  fulfilment,  and  that,  in  the  opinion 
of  competent  critics,  leaders  of  literary  clubs  and  readers  in  general 
cannot  aftbrd  to  overlook  its  suggestions. 

"•The  English  Club  of  Sewanee'  is  one  of  those  local  organiza- 
tions made  up  of  all  the  women  who  want  to  think,  and  the  few  men 
who  are  willing  to  help  them,  which  abound  in  our  American  life  and, 
vi^ith  some  fuss,  fads,  and  fribbles,  do  great  good.  The  Club  has  pub- 
lished its  essays.  A  few  are  by  professors  in  the  University  of  the 
South.  The  rest  are  by  women  of  the  nobler  Berean  type.  Tlie  essays 
are  like  many  others  by  like  bodies,  but  it  is  most  wise  to  publish  them 
because  it  makes  good,  honest  work  visible,  stimulates  by  example, 
and  aids  in  that  wide  diffusion  of  an  universal  cultivation  on  which 
the  success  of  the  great  experiment  rests." — Book  A'ews,  Phila. 

"  They  serve  admirably  to  show  the  degree  of  culture  which  may 
be  attained  in  an  association  of  this  kind  conducted  upon  proper  prin- 
ciples, and  the  book  will  be  valuable  as  an  aid  to  societies  and  associa- 
tions the  country  over  that  have  similar  aims." — Times,  Pittsburg. 

"  A  very  comprehensive  survey  of  the  manifestations  of  what  may 
be  called  the  modern  spirit.  .  .  .  The  value  of  such  closely  re- 
lated studies  must  be  evident  to  all  who  discern  the  significance  of  the 
present  moment  in  the  spiritual  history  of  the  country;  for  there  are 
many  signs  that  we  are  going  through  that  spiritual  crisis  which  comes 
to  a  people  passing  out  of  an  age  of  strenuous  toil  into  an  age  of  cul- 
ture."—  J'/ie  Churchman,  Nnu  York. 

"  Interesting  and  significant  as  regards  development  of  literary  taste 
and  culture  in  the  southern  part  of  our  country." — Literary  World, 
Boston. 

"  This  is  the  first  time,  we  believe,  that  Arnold  can  be  said  to  have 
been  seriously  discussed  as  a  force  in  letters  by  any  literaiy  club  in 
America,  though  we  have  had  a  sufficiency  of  Browning  societies  and 
Ibsen  clubs." — Mail  ajiJ  Express,  N'ew  York. 

"  Thoughtful  and  suggestive  papers,  representing  careful  and  schol- 
arly work.  .  .  .  There  is  much  in  them  which  is  of  more  than 
passing  value." — The  Covgregationalist,  Boston. 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  27  &  29  West  23d  St.,  New  York. 


OUTLINE  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  ENG- 
LISH LITERATURE, 

By  GREENOUGH  WHITE, 
Author  of"A  Sketch  of  the  Philosophy  0/  American  Literature." 

Part  I :   The  Middle  Ages. 


lamo.  Cloth,    vl  +  366  pages.    Introduction  price,  $1.00. 


The  motive  of  this  treatise  is  to  determine  the  bounds  of 
the  great  historical  divisions  of  English  Hterature,  to  discover 
the  silent  features,  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  each  epoch, 
to  trace  the  connection  in  thought  between  each,  and  to  view 
all  against  a  background  of  European  history,  literature,  and 
art.  It  is  believed  that  the  causes  of  historic  change,  the 
principles  that  control  the  succession  of  ages,  the  revolutions 
of  thought,  sentiment,  and  action,  are  here  clearly  discrim- 
inated; so  that  in  this  little  book,  in  a  word,  a  sound 
philosophy  of  mediaeval  history  is  suggested. 

W.  J,  Courthope,  Professor  of  Poetry  at  the  University  of  Oxford : 
It  would  be  quite  impertinent  in  me  to  criticise  the  manner  in  which 
the  work  has  been  executed,  but  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  my  ad- 
miration of  the  orderly  manner  in  wliich  its  very  diverse  materials  are 
arranged  and  of  the  agreeable  style  in  which  the  narrative  is  conducted. 
To  accomplish  this  result  in  so  vast  a  subject  as  English  literature  as  a 
whole  is  in  itself  a  proof  of  the  most  skilful  workmanship,  and  I  can- 
not too  strongly  express  my  conviction  that  this  comprehensive  survey 
is  based  upon  sound  knowledge  and  just  reasoning. 

Edward  Dowden,  Professor  of  English,  Trinity  College,  Dublin  : 
It  interested  me  much,  and  seemed  to  me  something  new  and  needful, 
— not  merely  a  work  of  erudition,  but  a  contribution  toward  interpret- 
ing the  results  of  erudition — a  book  not  merely  of  knowledge,  but  of 
ideas.  .  .  .  Especially  on  this  ground — as  an  elucidation  of  knowl- 
edge— I  value  the  work.  The  way  in  which  it  keeps  the  European 
movement  present  to  the  reader's  mind,  with  England  as  having  a  part 
in  it,  is  of  great  importance. 

Edmund  Gosse,  Anther  of  a  "  History  of  English  Literature  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century,"  etc. :  I  have  read  the  book  with  pleasure.  It 
appears  to  me  to  deal  freshly  and  brilliantly  with  the  old,  worn  lines 
of  history. 

Leslie  Stephen,  Author  of  "  I/ours  in  a  Library,"  etc.  .■  The  de- 
sign is  good,  the  style  is  good,  and  the  matter  interesting. 


GINN  k  COMPANY,  Publishers,  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  London. 


SKETCH  OF  THE 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE, 

By  GREENOUGH  WHITE. 

ISmo.    Flexible    clotli.    iv  +  66    pages.    Introductiou   price,   30 
cents.    By  mall,  postpaid,  35  cents. 

This  essay  points  out  the  connection  between  our  country's 
literature  and  history,  and  shows  how  new  forms  in  letters 
and  arts  have  arisen  as  advancing  thought  required.  It  may 
be  used  as  a  key  to  the  whole  subject,  as  well  as  to  the  ex- 
c;ellent  and  extended  treatises  upon  it  and  the  numerous 
complications  that  have  recently  appeared.  It  is  a  book  that 
will  interest  the  general  reader  (it  can  be  read  at  a  single 
sitting),  and  the  experienced  teacher  will  find  it  highly  valu- 
able in  inculcating  in  more  advanced  classes  habits  of  sound 
and  scholarly  appreciation  of  American  intellectual  life. 

Professor  F.  J.  Child  (in  a  letter  to  the  author)  :  I  think  you  are 
a  little  incautious  in  your  preface.  But  when  we  come  to  the  history 
you  are  entirely  temporate  and  discriminating.  Your  rapid  sketch 
presents  the  production  of  two  hundred  years  lucidly  and  very  agree- 
ably. 

Professor  Charles  F.  Richardson,  author  of  a  "  History  of  Ameri- 
can Literature  "  :  It  is  refreshing,  when  so  much  so-called  "  criticism  " 
is  second-hand,  to  come  upon  a  discussion  like  this,  presenting  conclu- 
sions often  new  and  always  based  on  direct  reading. 

Professor  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  author  of  a  "  History  of  American 
Colonial  Literature "  :  I  can  honestly  say  that  I  am  struck  most 
agreeably  by  the  soundness  of  its  fundamental  conception  of  the  spirit 
and  motive  of  American  Literature.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that  our 
people  could  catch  that  fruitful  idea  here  properly  put  at  the  front,  that 
there  is  a  living  and  illuminating  connection  between  our  country's 
history  and  its  literature. 

Mr.  Edmund  C.  Stedman,  author  of "  L'oets  of  America,"  etc.,  etc.: 
The  pricis  seems  to  me  to  be  successful  and  to  go  to  the  root  of  the 
matter — i.e.,  to  show  the  philosophy  of  the  development  of  the  success- 
ive phases  of  our  national  literature. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes :  An  interesting  study  of  some  of  our 
earlier  and  more  recent  authors. 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier :  It  was  difficult  to  compress  in  the  space 
of  a  brief  essay  all  that  might  be  said  of  the  development  and  trend  of 
cur  literature  and  thought,  but  so  far  as  it  goes  it  is  a  valuable  and 
well-considered  paper  in  proof  of  the  fact  of  an  unborrowed  and  inde- 
pendent American  Literature. 


GINN  k  COMPANY,  Publishers,  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  London. 


AN  EPIC  OF  THE  SOUL. 


This  cycle  of  eighty  short  poems,  of  a  new  form,  re- 
cords the  experience  of  one  who  has  sounded  the  depths 
of  doubt  and  despair,  and  emerged  into  light  on  the  fur- 
ther side. 

Their  publication  seems  timely,  for  the  age  itself  is 
apparently  going  through  a  like  experience ;  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  they  will  prove  a  source  of  spiritual  comfort 
and  consolation  to  many  a  kindred,  troubled  soul. 

We  are  permitted  to  say  that  the  author  is  known  in 
more  than  one  department  of  literature. 


Printed  in  best  style,  on  feather-weight  paper,  with 
deckle  edges,  and  bound  in  white  vellum,  gilt  top,  with 
title  on  back  and  on  cover  in  gold.     Price,  $i.oo  net. 

THOMAS  WHITTAKER,  2  and  3  Bible  House,  New  York. 


Date  Due 

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